부산대학교 도서관

The skin test for diagnosis of allergic diseases is still one of the effective methods of proving reagin though it is evaluated differently as to its reliability. The reason for the different incidences in reliability may be due to the lack of specificity of reaction on one hand, and that careful studies of reactivity of the skin have not received attention on the other hand.The immediate intracutaneous reactions are produced not only as a result of antigenantibody reaction following injection of an antigen, but also as a pharmacological action by the introduction of chemical agents such as histamine or acetylcholine. In addition, a physical irritation following injection of saline is also one of the causes of them.The resulting wheal and erythema possess a similar appearance regardless of the nature of causes.This is the reason why saline or antigen solvent is used as a control on one hand and why the classifications of reactions as measured by the diameter of wheal and erythema are different from one investigator to another on the other hand.In this paper, we will discuss the reactivity of the skin itself based on our recent studies of the intracutaneous skin test rather than to its relation to the manif ectation of diseases. For obtaining a uniform classification, standardization regarding the boundary between positive and negative skin reactions is very desirable, and it can be obtained only through statistical analysis.