The Open Access Journal of Science and Technology vol. 5 (2017), Article ID 101281, 8 pages doi:10.11131/2017/101281 AgiAl Publishing House http://www.agialpress.com/ Research Article Questionnaire’s and Diagnostic Tests’ Reliability on Natural Rubber Latex Allergy among Albanian Dental Students Alketa Bakiri 1,2,3 , Skender Skenderaj 4 , Dhimiter Kraja 5 , Elizana Petrela 6 , Doris Mingomataj 2 , and Ervin Ç. Mingomataj 7,8 1 Logos University, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Department of Advanced Techniques in Medical Laboratory, Tirana, Albania 2 Albanian University, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Department of Stomatology, Tirana, Albania 3 Hygeia Hospital Tirana, Department of Outpatients Service, Tirana, Albania 4 Medicine University of Tirana, Faculty of General Medicine, Department of Environmental and Work Medicine, Tirana, Albania 5 Medicine University of Tirana, Faculty of General Medicine, Department of Infective and Dermato- Venerologic Diseases, Tirana, Albania 6 Medicine University of Tirana, Faculty of General Medicine, Department of Statistics and Epidemiology, Tirana, Albania 7 Medicine University of Tirana, Faculty of Technical-Medical Sciences, Department of Paraclinical Disciplines, Tirana, Albania 8 “Mother Theresa” School of Medicine, Department of Allergology and Clinical Immunology, Tirana, Albania Abstract. Latex allergy is a common occupational disease among healthcare workers. Self- administrated questionnaires, physical examination and allergic tests are largely used to assess data about natural history, risk factors, clinical phenotype, etc. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of allergy to latex gloves among dental students and the association between questionnaire items and diagnostic tests. In this prospective study, a total of 240 students completed a self-administrated questionnaire that comprised of a total of different items and gave information about the participants and their glove use, working habits and glove use, signs and symptoms related to glove use, precautions taken to minimize it, etc. Patch test is performed through latex gloves, while skin prick test with a commercial extract. Questionnaire items and diagnostic tests revealed that one-fourth of subjects were suspicious for latex gloves hypersensitivity. Their mean value for skin reactions like contact urticaria, irritant or allergic dermatitis was between 10% and 14%, while for other symptoms the mean value was under 5%. Logistic regression analysis revealed an association between different questionnaire items and positive allergy tests among suspected cases and diagnosed cases of latex allergy, but not with control tests (including between the positive patch test and presence of non-cutaneous symptoms). These findings suggest that respiratory exposure plays an important role on the interaction between different mechanisms during sensitization processes, and that questionnaire statements about latex allergy in combination with positive diagnostic tests can be reliable on the identification of allergic subjects. Keywords: latex allergy, clinical phenotypes, questionnaire, diagnostic tests. How to cite this article: Alketa Bakiri, Skender Skenderaj, Dhimiter Kraja, Elizana Petrela, Doris Mingomataj, and Ervin Ç. Mingomataj, “Questionnaire’s and Diagnostic Tests’ Reliability on Natural Rubber Latex Allergy among Albanian Dental Students” The Open Access Journal of Science and Technology, vol. 5, Article ID 101281, 8 pages, 2017. doi:10.11131/2017/101281 Page 1 Corresponding Author Ervin Ç. Mingomataj allergology@gmx.de Editor Kazuhito Asano Dates Received 13 February 2017 Accepted 28 February 2017 Copyright © 2017 Alketa Bakiri et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.