High Serum Allergen-Specific IgE of House Dust Mite in Predicting the Risk of Comorbidity in Children with Allergic Conjunctivitis.

PURPOSE: To investigate the patterns of allergens in allergic conjunctivitis (AC) and the association with allergic comorbidity.

METHODS

This retrospective cross-sectional study enrolled 2972 children with AC. Clinical data, including sex, age, allergic comorbidities (allergic asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis), and serum allergen-specific immunoglobulin E (sIgE), were collected from the electronic medical record (EMR). The categorical variables were compared with the chi-square test. The characteristics of allergens in children of different ages and comorbidities were analyzed by trend chi-square. The sensitivity level of HDM associated with AC and comorbidities was assessed by odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals of logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS

A total of 2972 children (2015 boys and 957 girls) with AC were included in the study. The mean age was 3.78 (0.5~12) years. The most common allergen was house dust mite(HDM) (43.41%). With age, the positive rate for inhaled allergens gradually increased, and the positive rate for ingested allergens decreased. With the number of comorbidities increasing, the positive rates of sensitization were 38.33%, 74.51%, 80.72%, and 89.05%, and the incidence of polysensitization was 44.66%, 56.48%, 59.54%, and 74.59%, respectively. With the increase of HDM-sIgE level, the number of comorbidities and the risk increased gradually.

CONCLUSION

HDM is the most common allergen in AC children of different ages. High levels of HDM-sIgE may be a predictor for allergic comorbidities. Children with polysensitization and high levels of HDM sIgE will be an important target population for future intervention in other allergy-related disease prevention.