Background: Wheezing is a highly frequent symptom in infants and children. Its major causes are respiratory infections and bronchial asthma. In this context, allergen sensitization plays an important role, and it can be detected by a skin prick test, a safe and effective technique that can be easily performed on any age-group. To assess the prevalence of aeroallergen sensitization in a pediatric population with recurrent episodes of wheezing.
Materials and methods: Cross-sectional study that evaluated 100 patients, 50 (50%) girls and 50 (50%) boys, from 6 months to 10 years. These children had consulted frequently at the Allergy and Immunology Division of the Eva Perón School Hospital due to recurrent episodes of wheezing. Skin prick test were performed on all of them and also on 20 healthy children.
Results: Overall, 58% of the patients presented sensitization to dust mite, 13% to pollen, 9% to epithelium, 8% to fungi, 6% to cockroach, and 1% to soybean hull. Overall, 60% of the patients were positive to at least one of the extracts, and we observed a significant and gradual increase in the frequency of sensitization in older age-groups (P < 0.005). This increase persisted when analyzing separately the dust mite group and the pollen group. None of the cases presented any adverse local or systemic reaction during the procedure or the following 24 hours after the procedure. The 20 individuals in the control group turned out negative when tested.
Conclusions: This study found high aeroallergen sensitization prevalence in a pediatric population with recurrent episodes of wheezing examined in the Allergy and Immunology Division of the Eva Perón School Hospital, which is in the southern area of the province of Santa Fe in Argentina.