The Diagnosis and Treatment of Inhalant Allergies
The American Academy of Environmental Medicine designates this educational activity for a maximum of 14.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Allergic rhinitis plays a major role in the lives of millions of Americans. Primary care physicians will see many patients with this disease or diseases that mimic it. Physicians commonly prescribe medications for allergic rhinitis without knowing the inciting antigen or antigens. Allergy testing can complete the picture for the physician and can play a role in the treatment strategies used to combat this disease. Many physicians do not receive this training in residency, and allergy testing can be somewhat of a mystery. Allergy testing plays a key role in immunotherapy, which is a viable alternative to medical management. Skin prick testing remains the most used test because of its ease of use, and its rapid results. It remains a great screening tool for allergic disease. Intradermal testing is slightly more invasive and does not yield much more useful information. In contrast, intradermal dilutional testing and modified quantitative testing are useful when a screening test is positive because they yield more information for starting doses of immunotherapy. RAST is also an integral part of allergy testing when contraindications to skin/dermal testing exist. There are still questions to be answered.
Treatment for allergies is big business! In 2005, roughly 22 million Americans spent $11 billion on doctors’ bills, prescription drugs, and other medical care to relieve allergy symptoms, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Visits to doctors and hospitals accounted for $4 billion. The remaining roughly $7 billion was spent mostly on prescription drugs. Much of that expenditure could have been avoided if people had better access to effective immunotherapy.
This program has been designed for primary care providers, including physicians, nurses, physician assistants, and allergy technicians who participate in the treatment allergic rhinitis. You and your allergy staff will learn with hands-on training the most effective diagnostic & immunotherapy modalities currently available for handling allergy problems found in all practices! Use these techniques next week!
