Use of pollen mixes for skin prick testing is efficient but misses sensitization to some included pollens

Abstract

At Scripps Clinic pollen mixes are routinely used in a skin prick screening panel to assess for evidence of sensitization to aeroallergens in patients with suspect symptoms. In those unlikely to pursue aeroallergen immunotherapy identification of sensitization to individual pollens may be unnecessary. Use of mixes is time and cost saving. Notably the concentration of each individual pollen is less in these mixes with dilution based on the total number of pollens included. As a quality measure we seek to assess whether use of pollen mixes yield concordant results when compared to individual pollens testing.