<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Here are a couple of responses to my question regarding A) what is the ELISA test and B) what are all the tests about, anyway? A. ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbant assay) is a blood test that detects specific antigens/antibodies using enzymes that attach to the antigen and then are read with special machines. B. >I don't think there is a "best" test. What there is: > >- skin scratch/patch tests. They only identify IgE-mediated allergies, > and don't do a very good job of classifying their severity, and often > give results misleading in both directions (reporting allergies that > don't exist and failing to find those that do) but they're quick, cheap > and cover a lot of things at once. > >- cytotoxic blood tests. Pretty crude and inaccurate, and vary all over the > place if you repeat them, but cover a wide range of types of reaction - > primarily IgG (immune responses) but maybe some funny stuff we don't > understand yet and which more precise tests miss. > >- ELISA tests. Very selective, work for IgE, IgG, and Candida-specific IgA, > expensive, measure severity of reactions, but quite new and so there isn't > a lot of clinical experience in interpreting the results. Maybe the wave > of the future. Also work for detecting Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium > responsible for stomach ulcers. > >- radioallergosorbent tests (RAST). Detects IgE and related allergies. > See Brostoff and Gamlin's _The Complete Guide to Food Allergy and > Intolerance_ for more information about these. I don't think they're > widely used at present; since they involve the lab in handling mildly > radioactive materials they must be a pain in the bum from a regulatory > standpoint. > >- hair testing. Worthless crank mumbo-jumbo. (But hair analysis *can* > give useful information about nutrient deficiencies and some kinds of > chronic poisoning, if it's done right). C. National Biotechnology Lab in Seattle (recently bought by some other company, Great Smokey something-or-other, that raised its prices to the max that Medicare would allow...) has a couple of web sites to find info on testing and doctor referrals: http://www.nbtl.com and http:www.gsdl.com Another resource I found was Doris Rapp's book, IS THIS YOUR CHILD? DISCOVERING AND TREATING UNRECOGNIZED ALLERGIES IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS, William Morrow, NY, 1991, ISBN# 0-688-11907-7... It was pretty cheap ($12.00US), thick and full of info on something called provocation/neutralization testing and therapy-- apparently a pretty controversial treatment for allergies, esp. food allergies, that claims to have great results-- I don't know about that part, but the book discusses a huge variety of allergy symptoms, everything from hyperactivity to bedwetting and asthma-- one main point is the brain is an organ affected by allergy, too. Anyway, she also gives some case hystories and tells how to do the Single Food/Multiple Food elimination diets as well as the Practical Rotary Diet to detect allergies. (We're trying the Rotary with our three year old and I think he may be reacting to corn... he's already "out" on wheat and dairy! Oh, well.) confused as ever, Jeanne