Chest
Usefulness of Skin Test in Farmer's Lung
Section snippets
MATERIAL AND METHODS
The study included 26 patients with FL, the diagnosis of which was based on the presence of clinical, roentgenologic and immunologic characteristics. All subjects had histories of dyspnea after exertion and had suffered at least one episode of dyspnea a few hours after contact with mouldy material. Functional respiratory tests (spirography, lung volumes, and diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide) showed a restrictive pattern in 25 patients and obstruction in ten of the 25. The diffusion
Skin Test with MH
In the 18 patients with FL with recent antigenic contact, the immediate readings (I) were positive in 83.3 percent (15 of 18); the late reaction (L) in 100 percent (18 of 18); and the delayed reaction (D) in 44.4 percent (eight of 18).
In the 25 AF, the results were: I, 28 percent (seven of 25); L, 68 percent (17 of 25); and D, 4 percent (one of 25). Therefore, as we have set out in Table 3, the difference is significant: p<0.01 for reading I, p<0.05 for the L reaction, and p<0.01 for the D
DISCUSSION
In bird breeders disease, the diagnostic usefulness of the skin test has been shown.7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 In farmers lung, another form of extrinsic allergic alveolitis, although some experimental studies 13,26 have been carried out in animals which became ill after inhaling hay, showing positive skin reactions, the clinical usefulness of this test in general is not accepted.11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 The nonspecificity of the skin test in this disease has often been
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Manuscript received February 13; revision accepted August 10.