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what does my IgE level mean?

I have been dealing with an allergic reaction for the past five months. It began in August as a swelling feeling under the tongue but nothing ever looked swollen. It progressed to its worst in late November when it presented as extreme pain and a feeling of swelling under the tongue, in the jaw, and in the nasopharynx. Swelling has been present in the nasopharynx and caused me to be unable to breathe, hence I now carry an epi-pen. As suddenly as it appeared, it disappeared and is back to being a slight swelling feeling under the tongue, yet no actual sign of swelling, and this has been confirmed by both a dentist and ENT. Followups with the ENT have shown bloodwork high in IgE and eosinophils. After being placed on allergy medicine (Zyrtec), bloodwork was repeated a few months later and IgE is 7% (?) and eosinophils are still high. What does an IgE of 7% mean? What is the normal range? I never get to speak with my doctor without an appointment, I just get the results of the tests. I have a followup appointment with my ENT in four months and a consult with general medicine in two weeks. My TSH/T3/T4 levels are normal, C1 and C4 inhibitor normal, glucose normal and everything else normal. Is this a simple allergy? I'm tired of dealing with this and have never had problems like this before.
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479581 tn?1317757488
I mentioned polyuerthane....it is often in mattresses or, in my case, a mattress cover.  I had increased allergic reactions until I removed it.  I also put extra layers (wool blanket, 2 bottom sheets) between me and my new mattress.  

Before...I woke up 4 times with anaphalactic symptoms in the middle of the night.  I got 3-4 times every night to go to the bathroom and was extremely thristy all night.

After...I haven't had any of these problems since I got rid of the polyuerthane from my bed.

Sandy
Helpful - 0
168348 tn?1379357075
Do you come in contact with formeldahyde or polyurethane?  Those are allergins, too in some people .....

There's some discussion in another thread on it.

Keep us posted ........ I hope it goes away with the new new work environment when it's done.  

C~
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Avatar universal
I have no involvement with intestines/stomach etc, just tongue, jaw and nasopharynx. I understand the IgE, but I was wondering exactly what 7% meant, I don't know the normal range so how high is that? The delayed hypersensitivity sounds more like what I am dealing with. I cannot pinpoint one thing that causes it because it seems to happen at any point throughtout the day. I eat on a regular schedule due to work and it does not correlate with my eating times. I actually became curious awhile ago if this was an inhaled allergen at work. I work in a research lab and come in contact with hundreds of chemicals a day so it would be almost impossible to narrow it down to one. My work habits have not changed, but as we found out during a new construction phase, our air vents run backwards so instead of the air being pumped out of our labs, we get the dust and air from many other places. I am actually in the process of moving to a new lab and hope that maybe this can clear up the problem. Problems were the worst during the heaviest phase of construction, but my ENT still firmly believed it was food allergy.
Helpful - 0
168348 tn?1379357075
There are delayed reactions which can be delayed hypersensitivites which mainly affect the mucosal linings of the body such as the nasal passages and the intestines and/or the lungs as in RAD or reactive airway disease.   Delayed reactions usually are not as life threatening as immediate ones and the onset is greater than 6 hrs from ingestion and can take up to days to occur so figuring out what the trigger is can be very hard to pinpoint.

Is it true you can have a false negative RAST test but never a false positive ?

If you are + RAST IgE then your allergies are most likely more serious than if they are skin tested + w/o + blood.  In other words severe intolrance vs. true allergy.

C~
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Avatar universal
IgE is a measurement of a specific antibody reaction to an allergen. I think. If you could have an IgG\IgE Food Panel done (blood test) by US BioTek Labs, or Metametrix, (they have websites) you could find out exactly what foods you react to, and to what degree.

Intestinal healing will end some allergies.(When incompletely digested food molecules "leak" through the intestinal lining, your antibodies react to the "foreigners", causing allergy symptoms.)  However, there is a difference I believe, between food "sensitivities" and true food allergies.
Helpful - 0
168348 tn?1379357075
Ahhhh it may be an OAS or oral allergy syndrome at play here ..... I am not a doc but my daughter has this severely to raw carrots and some other raw items and is also severely pollen allergic.  OAS oral allergy syndrome can be found I think in the health pages addition at the top of the page with cross reactions .... The IeG level and EEOs may show inflammation maybe ?  I'm not an expert in this area but this may be some new info to explore for you.

C~
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
As for why this is posted in the Food Allergy section, my ENT suspects that this is food-pollen syndrome and something that I am eating is cross reacting. This began around the time I started eating a new cereal but if I remember correctly, began before the cereal. It also persisted quite long after stopping the cereal. I have found no food (fresh fruits/vegetables/wheat/etc) that seem to trigger it. It comes and goes throughout the day.
Helpful - 0
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