Abstract
The study was aimed at presence of specific IgE antibody levelsinvitro to the identified antigen. Based on positive skin test with Gynandropsis gynandra and elevated levels of total IgE (>325 IU/ml) 104 patients were selected. Healthy, asymptomatic individuals (25) with low total IgE (<325 IU/ml) were included as controls. The mean OD values by ELISA for specific IgE were 0.67±0.21, 0.57±0.18 and 0.56±0.18 with whole pollen antigen, 46-37 kD fraction and 36-32 kD fraction, respectively. The specificity and sensitivity between skin test positivity with whole pollen antigen verses fraction with mol.wt 46-37 kD was 90% and 90% and for fraction with mol.wt 36-32 kD was found to be 81.1% and 89.4%. The clusters with molecular weights 46-37 kD and 36-32 kD may be useful inin vitro diagnostic test. Fractions within these clusters need to be identified for a higher specificity.