A comparison of skin and bronchial reactivity in asthmatic patients using single, group related and unrelated antigen mixtures.

To test the hypothesis that mixtures of antigens may provide an efficient technique for bronchial challenge, the authors measured the airway response to challenge with individual antigens and groups of related and unrelated antigens. The data suggest that the hypothesis is correct for grass antigens. Grass antigens were associated with all positive challenges observed in the group challenges. Positive bronchial challenges were not found in the mixtures that did not contain grass antigen.