Objective    To evaluate the diagnostic value the skin prick test (SPT)

serum total IgE and eosinophil count (EOS) in children with asthma.     Methods    A total of 549 children who were suspected to have asthma were subjected from March 2007 and June 2010. They were examined with SP

T

serum total IgE test and eosinophil count (EOS). Using the clinical symptoms and pulmonary function tests as the Golden standard

358 cases had been diagnosed to suffer from asthma

and the other 191 cases had respiratory tract infection

pneumonia

eczema

hives

chronic cough (not cough variant asthma)

allergic rhinitis

bronchi

tuberculosis and so on. Sensitivity

specificity

and accuracy of SPT

total IgE and EOS were compared by using receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) analysis

and the cut off points of total IgE and EOS was 88 IU/ml and 288×10

6

/L.     Results    By non-parametric methods

the areas under ROC curves of SPT

total IgE and EOS were 0.806 (95%CI 0.766 to 0.847)

0.827 (95%CI 0.793 to 0.862) and 0.699 (95%CI 0.655 to 0.744) respectively in the childhood asthma diagnostic tests. The sensitivity

specificity

accuracy

positive and negative predictive values for the diagnosis of children asthma by total IgE were 85.5%

64.7%

77.2%

77.9% and 75.9% respectively

those by SPT

were 87.5%

71.8%

81.6%

83.8% and 77.5%

respectively

and those by EOS were 77.5%

46.8%

61.9%

58.7% and 68.1% respectively

those by parallel tests of total IgE and SPT were 81.4%

75.2%

79.6%

89.1% and 61.8% respectively

and those by serial test of total IgE and SPT were 94.2%

64.1%

79.2%

72.6% and 91.6% respectively.     Conclusion    The sensitivity

specificity

accuracy

positive and negative predictive value of total IgE is closely related to SPT and preferably to EOS. Both parallel tests and serial tests of total IgE and SPT are better than the other methods in our study. The combined detection of total IgE and SPT is one of very valuable methods in the diagnosis of childhood asthma.