Frontiers in Medical Case Reports | 2021
Clinical History Matters, Skin Prick Test (SPT) Results are Not the Be-All and End-All for Allergy Diagnosis
Abstract
The diagnosis of Allergic disease is combination of clinical symptom assessment and analysis of the gold standard Skin Prick Test (SPT). This case report stresses on the fact that the results of SPT have to be mandatorily associated with clinical symptom manifestation for which a detailed history taking is absolutely instrumental. This study represents the maiden case from India where a patient presented with SPT documented house dust mites (HDM) sensitization without typical clinical manifestations of the HDM allergy spectrum. The results of SPT prompted us to revisit the patient history more elaborately and it came to our notice that the patient was having a pet turtle and was allergic to one of the components present in the pet feed (Gammarus also know commonly as Shrimp) which cross reacts with some HDM allergens and hence the reactivity on SPT. A simple allergen avoidance strategy (here it was the pet and its feed) made a patient free from allergy symptom and off pharmacotherapy also.