Procedure for testing

The ImuPro test can now be sent to the laboratory in two ways:

• The blood sample test, where a blood sample is drawn from the patient and centrifuged before sending it to the lab via courier.
• The capillary blood test, or blood spot test, which the practitioner can carry out with the patient, or the patient can do him/herself following the instructions provided, and send to the lab in the normal post.

Both tests cost the same to analyse, but the capillary test avoids the additional costs of blood draw and courier. The other difference between the tests is that the blood draw test puts foods to which the patient has reacted into four groups – from 1 (mildest reaction) to 4 (strongest reaction). The capillary test merges groups 1 (mildest reaction) and 2 together, but groups 3 and 4 (strongest reaction) are still shown separately.

You or your patient should not conduct the ImuPro test if he/she has a temperature; please wait until it has gone down.

If the patient is on cortisone therapy/steroids: If the therapy is short term, i.e., less than eight weeks, please wait until the patient has been off the therapy for four weeks and then conduct the test. If the patient is on long-term cortisone therapy, please do the test regardless (as the patient would never otherwise do the IgG food intolerance test), but be aware that the markers will be weaker than normal (as the therapy suppresses IgG reactions). You will need to see a strength 1 or 2 reaction as likely to represent a strength 4 reaction (i.e., the patient would have had a stronger reaction if not on cortisone therapy), and your advice (re. how long to stay off the food, etc.) should be based on that assumption.

The same applies to a patient on chemotherapy. If the chemotherapy is short term (up to eight weeks), please wait until the patient has been off the therapy for four weeks and then conduct the test. If the therapy is longer term, please conduct the test anyway (because the benefits outweigh the disadvantages), but the constraints are the same as mentioned above re. the strength of reaction.

If using the blood draw test, the blood sample needs to either be centrifuged or left upright in a rack for 4 hours after it has been drawn so that the blood cells separate from the serum and coagulate. The serum then needs to be pipetted off and put in another tube and then (if the blood is not centrifuged) posted on the same day. This latter method will generally not be practical, so please ensure that the blood is centrifuged (in which case it is not necessary to send the blood to the lab on the same day).