Seasonal rhinitis, clinical characteristics and risk factors for asthma.

BACKGROUND

The aim was to determine the clinical characteristics of patients with seasonal rhinitis (SR) and to disclose differences in the treatment of SR between an adult allergy clinic and other clinics over time.

METHODS

A retrospective study was conducted based on clinical records of 774 out of 955 patients diagnosed with SR in an adult allergy clinic between 1 January 1991 and 31 December 2003.

RESULTS

The mean age of the patients was 29.1 +/- 9.29 years and 62.7% were female. The most common major complaints of the patients were nasal symptoms in 82.3%. The mean duration of the disease was 6.76 +/- 6.8 years. The patients were symptomatic with a mean of 3.5 +/- 1.7 months a year, mostly during the period between April and July. Skin prick tests were positive in 685 patients (90.3%), where the most common sensitivity was against timothy grass (85.1%). The most common accompanying allergic diseases were food hypersensitivity in 14%, bronchial asthma in 13.4%, and drug allergy and/or intolerance in 9.6%. Although the use of specific immunotherapy and short-acting sedative antihistamines decreased over time, the use of nasal steroids and long-acting nonsedative antihistamines tended to increase before admission to our clinic. Older age (OR: 1.77, 95% CI: 1.06-2.94), presence of familial atopy (OR: 1.72, 95% CI: 1.04-2.85), respiratory symptoms (OR: 2.10, 95% CI: 1.75-2.50), ocular symptoms (OR: 0.77, 95% CI: 0.61-0.98) and metal allergy (OR: 0.25, 95% CI: 0.07-0.89) were associated with the development of asthma in patients with SR.

CONCLUSIONS

SR lasts approximately 3.5 months and the main cause in Ankara, Turkey is grass pollen sensitivity. Patients with any other allergic conditions make up 39.8% of the patients. SR patients are referred to allergy clinics quite late, which might be due to SR not being considered as a serious disease.