Abstract
Purpose: :
To determine the frequency of skin reactivity to diverse allergens in allergic conjunctivitis patients.
Methods: :
Skin Prick tests were performed in 168 allergic conjunctivitis patients and skin hypersensitivity type I was evaluated with 60 different allergens, divided in 4 groups (pollens, fungi, food, and inhalants).
Results: :
We studied a total of 168 patients, 120 children and 48 adults. 18 patients were tested negative for the 4 groups of allergens. Pollen: Children, the frequences were Lolium perenne (9%), Prosopis juniflora (7%), Betula verrucosa (6%), Olea europaea (6%) and Helianthus annus (6%). Adults, Prosopis juniflora (10%), Olea europaea (9%), Lolium perenne (8%), Quercus ilex (8%), and Populus alba (8%). Fungi: Children, the frequences were Mucor sp. (28%), Penicillium sp. (18%), Candida albicans (18%), Hormodendrum sp. (13%), and Helminthosporium sp. (8%). Adults, Candida albicans (24%), Fusarium sp. (15%), Mucor sp. (12%), Hormodendrum sp. (12%), and Aspergillus fumigatus (12%). Food allergens: Children, egg (23%), pork (19%), milk (14%), fish (10%) and shrimp (8%). Adult, shrimp (10%), milk (8%), fish (8%), pork (5%) and egg (5%). Inhalants: Children, Dermatophagoides sp. (44%), Cockroach sp. (22%), Canis sp. (13%), Felis sp. (11%), and feather (7%). Adult, Dermatophagoides sp. (36%), Cockroach sp. (31%), Canis sp. (13%), Felis sp. (13%), and feather (4%). The most affected age group for all allergens was from 6 to 10 in children (36%) and from 18 to 30 in adults (13%).
Conclusions: :
Overall the most frequent allergen group tested positive was pollens both in adults and in children being the Lolium perenne the most frequent pollen allergen in children and Prosopis juniflora in adults. Interestingly we observed a group of patients with ocular allergy negative to all allergen tested, this suggests that the pathophysiological involvement of immune response could be similar to the immunological response observed in non allergic asthma/ vasomotor rhinitis or that it is restricted to the ocular microenvironment. These data are useful for the second generation sublingual vaccines development using proteomic technologies to further characterize the most abundant proteins present in an allergen extract in this specific population.