title: [Clinical and biological impact of environmental pollen on children with pollinosis].
abstract: In our area 100% of the pollen allergic children, between 1 and 14 years old, show cutaneous hypersensitivity to grass. The aim of this study was to ascertain whether children who have also a positive skin test to other pollen have a different clinical and biological seasonal behaviour than children with exclusive grass hypersensitivity. Seventy-two of these children answered a questionnaire in which they recorded the days in which they suffered symptoms of pollinosis and the kind of clinical manifestations from the first of April to the twenty sixth of July, 1984. Twenty-four patients were exclusively allergic to grass pollen and forty-eight also showed a positive skin test to other pollens. All patients were aware of and had used many kinds of symptomatic therapy. Therefore this circumstance was not taken into consideration when we evaluated the results. Sixty-one children had also received a pre-seasonal hyposensitization treatment with pollen grass extracts. The serum IgE level was determined in two moments, before and after the seasonal reactivation, in February and July. In sixty-nine cases the skin test diameters of pollen grass were also measured before and after the pollination. The follow-up questionnaire let us know whether the intensity of clinical manifestation was proportional to atmospheric pollen levels and whether the kind of clinical symptomatology was related to any immunological condition of the children. The environmental study and the clinical follow-up during the spring of 1984, of seventy-two children with pollinosis showed that the symptoms were only noticed during the weeks of grass pollination. The other pollen allergies did not cause any clinical presentation. In addition, there was no proportion between the environmental pollen levels and the intensity of the symptoms. The clinical manifestations terminated several weeks before the end of pollination in about 50% of the patients. On the contrary, the other 50% of patients maintained their clinical symptoms while a noticeable amount of pollen persisted in the atmosphere. These groups of children had neither special clinical features nor different serum IgE levels. Nevertheless, the size of the skin test decreased from February until July in the group whose symptomatology terminated before the end of pollination. The five patients who duplicated the serum IgE levels during this same period were the cases who showed clinical symptomatology during more days.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000388:Air / Q000032:analysis; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D006801:Humans; D006969:Hypersensitivity, Immediate / Q000209:etiology; D007073:Immunoglobulin E / Q000097:blood; D007223:Infant; D007428:Intradermal Tests; D011058:Pollen / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000032:analysis; D006255:Rhinitis, Allergic, Seasonal / Q000209:etiology* / Q000276:immunology; D012621:Seasons; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D007073:Immunoglobulin E
vernacular_title: Repercusiones clínicas y biológicas del polen ambiental sobre los niños con polinosis.