[Diagnosis in pediatric "allergic" patients].

Background. A clinician who deals with allergic patients needs the help of in vivo and in vitro allergometric tests in order to decide difficult therapeutic choices. Methods. In the section of Clinical Immunology of the Institute of Paediatrics (Palermo University) two allergologic tests, prick and MAST-CIA, have been studied retrospectively, they were performed on patients observed for allergic disorders over 5 years. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic capacity of these tests "on the field". The study population is made of 459 patients (age range from 6 months to 16 years) affected with asthma, rhinitis, presumably allergic dermatitis, association of asthma and dermatitis…