Objective: Despite the fact that skin prick test (SPT) is very important in diagnosis of allergic diseases; in vitro laboratory methods such as specific IgE antibodies may be required due to its drawbacks. Therefore, it is necessary to document value of this method in diagnosis. In our study, we aimed to determine the sensitivity and specificity of specific IgE antibodies by comparison with SPT.

Materials and Methods: The study included 282 patients, among which 63% were boys and 37% were girls, with a mean age of 9.28 ± 2.8 years. Skin prick test was performed on 279 of these patients. Age, gender, diagnosis, atopic history of the patients, number of eosinophils, total IgE and specific IgE results were recorded and number of eosinophils, total IgE and specific IgE results were compared between patients who were atopic and non-atopic according to the SPT.

Results: Sensitivity and specificity of specific IgE antibodies were determined as 72.7% and 87% for house dust mite (hx2); 63.6% and 83% for tree pollens (tx7); 77.3% and 89% for grass pollens (gx1); 29.6% and 73.5% for food panel (fx5) respectively.

Conclusion: It was detected that specificities of specific IgE antibodies, which is a commonly preferred method in children due to its easy performance, were higher than their sensitivities. Therefore, it is not appropriate to use these especially the food panel for screening purposes.