Evaluation of release fluoroimmunoassay (RFIA) for the determination of specific IgE antibody to Japanese cedar pollinosis

Release fluoroimmunoassay (RFIA), a new method of enzyme immunoassay (ELISA), was employed for the detection of specific IgE antibody in patients allergic to Japanese cedar pollen. RFIA clearly discriminated between allergic patients and healthy subjects. Further, RFIA was able to detect the minute IgE antibody at the dilution range of 1/32 of patient's serum. Correlation between the relative fluorescent unit values and the RAST values of sera from 17 patients and seven healthy subjects was very high. The correlation coefficient was 0.87. These findings show that the RFIA has an advantage over the other procedures for the diagnosis of immediate-type hypersensitivity as well as the diagnosis of Japanese cedar pollen.