IgE Test
Ocular Total Immunoglobulin E (IgE) Allergy Test
Ocular Immunoglobulin E (IgE) is a biomarker for allergic conjunctivitis, which often mimics dry eye disease or co-exists with dry eye disease.
What is Allergic Conjunctivitis?
Allergic conjunctivitis is associated with inflammation of the membrane that lines in the inside of the eyelids and leads to redness, itching, and tearing.
Allergic conjunctivitis is an increasingly prevalent as we experience longer allergy seasons and yet severely underdiagnosed due to the lack of rapid point-of-care diagnostic tools. Up to 40% of the U.S. population experiences symptoms of allergic conjunctivitis annually.
More severe acute presentations of allergic conjunctivitis are frequently challenging to differentiate from viral conjunctivitis. A common cause of contact lens or topical medication intolerance is thought to relate to underlying ocular allergies.
The treatment for allergic conjunctivitis is different than for dry eye disease (DED). In dry eye disease (DED), the presence of an allergen often mimics or accentuates the signs and symptoms of DED; thus it is important to assess the presence of an allergic response during an initial Dry Eye evaluation.
Testing & Results
Total IgE in tear fluid increases with the severity of allergic response. Thus, determination of total tear IgE level is useful not only for making a clinical diagnosis of allergic conjunctivitis but also for the assessment of severity and the response to therapeutic intervention.
Total IgE in tear fluid increases with the severity of allergic response. Thus, determination of total tear IgE level is useful not only for making a clinical diagnosis of allergic conjunctivitis but also for the assessment of severity and the response to therapeutic intervention.
The total IgE test has been optimized to provide a quantitative results nearly 50% faster than the non-optimized IgE test with no loss in sensitivity or specificity. Results are available in less than 10 minutes. This improvement will result in quicker patient throughput and give physicians the ability to test and treat double the number of patients suffering from allergic conjunctivitis than they can with their current diagnostic tools.
More Information
Test time: ≤ 10 mins
Sample (size and type): 0.5 microliter in tears
Test results: Normal IgE: 40 ng/ml
Sensitivity: 93%
Specificity: 96%
Shelf life: 12 months
Medicare and Private Insurance Reimbursable CPT code: 82785
For more information and to order, contact us through our partner Verséa Ophthalmics at ophthalmics@versea.com, +1 800 3970670 or fill out our Connect With Us form.