RAST Test - History

History

The market-leading RAST methodology was invented and marketed in 1974 by Pharmacia Diagnostics AB, Uppsala, Sweden, and the acronym RAST is actually a brand name. In 1989, Pharmacia Diagnostics AB replaced it with a superior test named the ImmunoCAP Specific IgE blood test, which literature may also describe as: CAP RAST, CAP FEIA (fluorenzymeimmunoassay), and Pharmacia CAP. A review of applicable quality assessment programs shows that this new test has replaced the original RAST in approximately 80% of the world's commercial clinical laboratories, where specific IgE testing is performed. The newest version, the ImmunoCAP Specific IgE 0-100, is the only specific IgE assay to receive FDA approval to quantitatively report to its detection limit of 0.1kU/l. This clearance is based on the CLSI/NCCLS-17A Limits of Detection and Limits of Quantitation, October 2004 guideline.

The guidelines for diagnosis and management of food allergy issues by the National Institute of Health state that:

In 2010 the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases recommended that the RAST test measurements of specific immunoglobulin E for the diagnosis of allergy be abandoned in favor of testing with more sensitive fluorescence enzyme-labeled assays.

Read more about this topic:  RAST Test

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    Humankind has understood history as a series of battles because, to this day, it regards conflict as the central facet of life.
    Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)

    The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.
    Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)

    The best history is but like the art of Rembrandt; it casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those which were best and greatest; it leaves all the rest in shadow and unseen.
    Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)