Allergic rhinitis: a strong association with asthma

Asthmatics have an increased also suffer from allergic rhinitis compared to people with other allergic disease such as atopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis or hives risk, confirms a French study published in the "Allergy" journal.

sabella Annesi-Maesano and colleagues from Inserm unit U707, Faculty of Medicine Saint-Antoine in Paris wanted to clarify the comorbidities associated with asthma and allergic diseases in the French population.

For this, they conducted a cross-sectional study with 3,916 adult patients presenting with various specialists (dermatologists, ENT specialists, pulmonologists, allergists) for the treatment of allergic disease.

Patients and their physicians completed questionnaires on diagnosis, history of allergic diseases during the year before inclusion, family history of allergies and possible risk factors for allergies.

The data indicate that the majority of patients with asthma and allergic diseases: 54.8% had allergic rhinitis, asthma 13.3%, 11.7% atopic dermatitis, 7.2% and contact dermatitis 6.1% allergic urticaria.

Other diagnoses were made less frequently: 1.6% had conjunctivitis, 1% sinusitis, nasal polyps 0.9%, 0.4% had an anaphylactic shock and 0.4 % syndrome Fernand-Widal (association of sinonasal polyposis, asthma and aspirin intolerance). Food allergies are also rare, affecting 0.2% of patients.

Overall, 67% of patients had at least one allergic comorbidity. Particular, it appears that allergic rhinitis is present in 82% of asthma then it is found that in half, on average, patients with allergic skin reaction.

Analysis (adjusted for age, sex, smoking and exposure to parental smoking and especially breast during pregnancy) indicates that patients with asthma were more likely to also suffer from allergic rhinitis, the risk being 4.5 to 7 times higher compared to those with atopic dermatitis, urticaria or allergic contact dermatitis.

Patients with nasal polyps, sinusitis or conjunctivitis also had a greater risk of allergic rhinitis that people with skin allergies.

These results are consistent with precedents in other countries, the researchers say.

An international program called ARIA (Allergic Rhinitis And It's Impact On Asthma) aims to educate patients and physicians to support any allergic rhinitis isolated to prevent the development of asthma and treat both diseases when two of them coexist.