Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Spring;6(1):3-9.

Allergic Conjunctivitis in Patients with Respiratory Allergic Symptoms; a Retrospective Study in Greece

Pavlos Michailopoulos  1   2 , Diamantis Almaliotis  2 , Irini Georgiadou  2 , Despina Papakosta  3 , Kyriakos Gougoulias  2 , Paschalina Giouleka  3 , Dimitrios Gioulekas  3 , Thomas Siempis  2 , Vasileios Karampatakis  2
Affiliations

Allergic Conjunctivitis in Patients with Respiratory Allergic Symptoms; a Retrospective Study in Greece

Pavlos Michailopoulos et al. Med Hypothesis Discov Innov Ophthalmol. 2017 Spring.

Abstract

Here, we report on the prevalence of allergic conjunctivitis and positive skin prick test (SPT) results in relation to respiratory allergic conditions among patients with symptoms of allergies at a respiratory outpatient clinic. A questionnaire survey of symptoms (i.e., asthma-like, rhinitis, and conjunctivitis symptoms) involving 1522 patients was carried out. The responses of 1242 patients indicated that they had allergic conjunctivitis, asthma, rhinitis, or a combination of these conditions, and 869 of these patients underwent SPTs that assessed responses to 40 allergens. Allergic conjunctivitis was found to be very common (40%, 497 out of 1242 patients) among those with symptoms of allergies. Conjunctivitis was slightly more common among women, while rhinitis was more common among men. Patients with both conjunctivitis and rhinitis were more likely to undergo SPTs, and they had a higher rate of positive SPTs. The coexistence of two or more comorbidities increased the risk of having an immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated allergy (based on the SPT results) compared to having each of the conditions alone. In conclusion, allergic conjunctivitis can occur either alone or with asthma and/or rhinitis. It is not always accompanied by rhinitis, but the coexistence of these conditions was the strongest indicator of IgE-mediated allergies.

Keywords: Allergic Comorbidities; Allergic Conjunctivitis; Allergic Rhinitis; Asthma; Skin Prick Tests.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

None declared. All the aforementioned authors met the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria for authorship for this manuscript, take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, and have provided approval for the revised manuscript to be published.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Number of patients who completed the questionnaires and gender distribution by allergy-related symptoms. (M: men, W: women, A: asthma, R: rhinitis, C: conjunctivitis
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Global Strategy for Asthma Management and Prevention, Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) 2015. Page 22-78.
    1. Bousquet J, Reid J, van Weel C, Baena Cagnani C, Canonica GW, Demoly P, Denburg J, Fokkens WJ, Grouse L, Mullol K, Ohta K, Schermer T, Valovirta E, Zhong N, Zuberbier T. Allergic rhinitis management pocket reference 2008. Allergy. 2008 Aug;63(8):990–6. PMID: 18691301. - PubMed
    1. Brozek JL, Bousquet J, Baena-Cagnani CE, Bonini S, Canonica GW, Casale TB, van Wijk RG, Ohta K, Zuberbier T, Schünemann HJ Global Allergy and Asthma European Network; Grading of Recommendations Assessment Development and Evaluation Working Group. Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) guidelines: 2010 revision. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2010 Sep;126(3):466–76. PMID: 20816182. - PubMed
    1. Worldwide variation in prevalence of symptoms of asthma, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, and atopic eczema: ISAAC. The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) Steering Committee. Lancet. 1998 Apr ;351(9111):1225–32. PMID: 9643741. - PubMed
    1. [database on the Internet] [(2017, Jaunary 15)]. Retrieved from https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/continuousnhanes/documents.aspx?BeginYe....

LinkOut - more resources