Skin testing: comparison of various techniques.

S KIN testing is one of the basic investigative procedures used by most allergists. The preference for any one test varies great.ly among the different workers. Four different tests were evaluated in this study: puncture, intracutaneous, conjunctival, and serial dilution intracutaneous threshold test. There was a total of 215 patients who were clinically sensitive to ragweed or grass pollens. These patients were tested with the specific aqueous antigen indicated from their clinical history. Each patient was tested on the same day with the puncture, standard intracutaneous, conjunctival threshold, and serial dilution intracutaneous threshold t,ests. They were tested approximately 4 months before the onset of the pollinating season. The following is a brief description of the four techniques employed.