title: Profile of the patients who present to immunology outpatient clinics because of frequent infections.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We aimed to determine the rate of primary immune deficiency (PID) among children presenting to our immunology outpatient clinic with a history of frequent infections and with warning signs of primary immune deficiency.
  
  
  METHODS
  The files of 232 children aged between 1 and 18 years with warning signs of primary immune deficiency who were referred to our pediatric immunology outpatient clinic with a complaint of frequent infections were selected and evaluated retrospectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty-six percent of the subjects were female (n=84) and 64% were male (n=148). PID was found in 72.4% (n=164). The most common diagnosis was selective IgA deficiency (26.3%, n=61). The most common diseases other than primary immune deficiency included reactive airway disease and/or atopy (34.4%, n=22), adenoid vegetation (12.3%, n=8), chronic disease (6.3%, n=4) and periodic fever, aphtous stomatitis and adenopathy (4.6%, n=3). The majortiy of the subjects (90.5%, n=210) presented with a complaint of recurrent upper respiratory tract infection. PID was found in all subjects who had bronchiectasis. The rates of the diagnoses of variable immune deficiency and Bruton agammaglubulinemia (XLA) were found to be significantly higher in the subjects who had lower respiratory tract infection, who were hospitalized because of infection and who had a history of severe infection compared to the subjects who did not have these properties (p<0.05 and p<0.01, respectively). Growth and developmental failure was found with a significantly higher rate in the patients who had a diagnosis of severe combined immune deficiency or hyper IgM compared to the other subjects (p<0.01). No difference was found in the rates of PID between the age groups, but the diagnosis of XLA increased as the age of presentation increased and this was considered an indicator which showed that patients with XLA were being diagnosed in a late period.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It was found that the rate of diagnosis was considerably high (72.4%), when the subjects who had frequent infections were selected by the warning signs of PID.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, İstanbul University Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sonay
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aldırmaz
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, İstanbul University Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Esra
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yücel
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, Marmara University Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ayça
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kıykım
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, İstanbul University Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Haluk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Çokuğraş
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, İstanbul University Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Necla
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Akçakaya
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, İstanbul University Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Yıldız
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Camcıoğlu
keywords: Primary immune deficiency; bronchiectasis; frequent infections