How allergy testing works

Allergy 35 IgE antibody test

TMI Testing have an exciting new allergy test which is the most accurate home-to-lab test to date, but how does it work?

If you are unsure of what items are causing your body harm, the Select 35 test takes the most common 38 items and using your blood sample, will give you a comprehensive report that you can follow to change your diet, and your life.

We test for food allergy reactions using an approved in-vitro testing system. Your blood sample is then exposed to a panel of food and non-food items. If a reaction is recorded, you have an allergy, and using IgE blood analysis, this is the most accurate testing available.

The response to a food is the cause of allergy symptoms. These reactions can be removed by your body into tissue or organs, which in turn leads to discomfort, pain, and in some cases, damage. Understanding what your body reacts to is the key to good health.

Once ordered, we’ll send you a Select 35 Blood Kit which contains all the information and instructions needed to take your blood sample with a small lancet.

This relatively pain-free method will allow you to draw blood from your finger and return it to us in a free-post envelope.

Testing for allergies

The allergy test is an immunoassay that determines the levels of antibody reactivity against specific allergens. Our tests are able to determine levels of antibodies against specific allergens. Using a test blotting procedure and a 6-spot blood card, the test is very similar to ELISA offered by market leaders.

Western Blotting procedures are a commonly used diagnostic tools, providing analytics to many areas of health care and immunology, as these can help a customer in the diagnosis of medical conditions.

We can measure a specific antibody response with a client’s sample, and a panel of specific allergens derived from foods or other triggers (such as pollen or epithelium cells). Additionally, to complete the testing and ensure the process is complete, our lab technicians require conjugate, wash solution and substrate.

All of our customers and clients’ blood samples are unique, but our testing panels are produced in an identical way, meaning they adhere to forms of quality control and compliance. Your blood samples are in safe hands with TMI Testing.

The first stage of the IgE immunoassay will be to apply a quantity of patient sample to the testing panel. If there are any specific antibodies present in the sample, specifically relating to those on the panel, they will bind. Every panel also has three control values that will always react the same way with known values.

Next up, the panel will require to be washed with the wash solution, this is designed to remove all unbound sample from the panel and prevent non-specific binding to the panel, whilst also not being too abrasive to remove bound allergens and antibodies.

Next the specific conjugate is used. A conjugate has been devised to react to IgE antibodies. So, if there have been any reactions to the allergens on the panel, the conjugate will then bind to the complex of antibodies and allergen. If this happens the complex will be marked by the presence of the conjugate binding. This will be left to react for a period of time.

The next step is to use the wash solution again to remove unbound conjugate. A substrates job is to make this reaction complex visible for analysis. There are many ways to do this. We use a colorimetric method, which means we apply a numeric value to the shade of a colour. When we apply the substrate to the panel, if there has been a reaction between a conjugate and an allergen/antibody complex the position on the testing panel will be visibly coloured. If there has been no reaction the substrate won’t react, and the position will remain clear. The three control areas of the panel will always react in the same manner. These controls correlate to three known values of increasing reactivity.

This is just a basic overview of the blood allergy testing process and the way it works at TMI Testing. However, should you want to know a little bit more about blood spot allergy testing, our 24-hour support team are happy to help with any queries which you may have.