Allergy - Velvet Test

Allergy velvet is a disease condition caused by hypersensitive reaction of our body’s immune system to pollen produced by velvet grass. Pollens are famous for producing severe allergic reactions in people. Since they are aeroallergens they usually cause symptoms such as running nose, asthma, watery eyes, sneezing, itching etc. Like in other immune reactions, here also, Ig E antibodies are responsible for causing such adverse reactions when the body is exposed to the particular allergen. Skin tests as well as blood tests are available for determining allergy velvet. Skin tests are more sensitive and less expensive.

No special preparation is required usually from the part of the patient in case of both skin tests and blood tests. It is important that the patient informs the clinician about the medications he is currently undertaking. Upon advice of the clinician the patient may have to discontinue the use certain drugs especially antihistamines for few days prior to the test. If one has had severe skin allergic reactions in the past the clinician should be informed beforehand.in such cases a blood test is preferred rather than a skin test.

Velvet grass allergy is commonly found in people in different parts of the world. Severe rhinitis (hay fever), asthma and dermatitis produced by this, causes a lot of inconvenience to them. Allergy velvet test helps to determine specifically whether the allergic reaction is caused by velvet grass pollen or not.in case of a positive test, the patient is advised to avoid exposure to the allergen in future and suitable anti-allergic medications are also given. If the test comes out to be negative then the patient is advised to check for other possible allergens that may be causing the symptoms.

In case of a skin prick test, an area over your forearm is located, cleaned using spirit and using a lancelet allergen is introduced to your skin. Wait for 15 minutes to see if there is any sign of redness or swelling. In case of a blood test, a suitable vein is located on your forearm and skin over the vein is cleaned. With the help of a needle enough blood is drawn from your body for testing. Later an adhesive bandage may be applied on that area. The collected blood is sent to laboratory for further analysis