الفهرس 
ALLERGIC SENSITIZATION AND ASTHMAOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
This analytical cross sectional study was conducted on children with bronchial asthma following up at the Pediatric Allergy and Immunology Clinic, Children’s Hospital, Ain Shams University in the period from September 2017 to March 2018. Our aim was to investigate sensitization to Timothy grass pollen (TGP) in a group of asthmatic Egyptian children in relation to other markers of disease expression. The study included 100 asthmatic patients. Their ages ranged from 72-144 months with a mean age of 105.36 ± 25.33 months. Boys comprised 66 children (66%) while females were 34 (34%).
Patients with asthma alone represented 10 (10%),
while patients with asthma with concomitant other allergies represented 90 (90%) of our population, 88 (88%) of them had concomitant allergic rhinitis, 30 (30%) had concomitant urticaria/angioedema, 2 (2%) had concomitant eczema. Patients with intermittent asthma in this study represented only 16 (16%) while patients with persistent asthma represented 84 (84%) of our population.
The current study revealed a high frequency of TGP sensitization representing 61% of the studied sample. The diameter of wheal in sensitized children ranged between 3-7 mm with a median (IQR) of 4 (3- 4). None of our subjects had wheal diameter ≥ 8 mm which highly predicts allergy to this grass pollen.
When we studied TGP sensitization according to the presence or absence of other allergic manifestations, children with concomitant allergic rhinitis, urticaria/angioedema or eczema had sensitization frequency comparable to those with asthma alone. Sensitized children with asthma tended to have smaller wheal diameter than those with concomitant allergies who showed larger diameter.
Patients with persistent asthma were more prone to be TGP sensitized and showed larger wheal diameter than those with intermittent asthma. Also, A statistically significant increase in the need for high-dose inhaled corticosteroids and for add-on therapy with leukotriene receptor antagonist was observed in patients with sensitization as compared to those with no sensitization to timothy grass pollen.
It is concluded from our results that sensitization to Timothy grass pollen (TGP) could be a biomarker that predict the pattern of disease expression and need to certain lines of treatment in Egyptian asthmatic children. The findings are limited by the sample size and consecutive manner of sampling. Larger studies with stratified systematic sampling are recommended to overcome the limitations of our study and evaluate the frequency of Timothy garss pollen (TGP) sensitization and its relation to asthma expression and severity.