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Review
. 2025 Apr 30;68(1):45.
doi: 10.1007/s12016-025-09055-0.

Questionnaire for Clinical Diagnosis of House Dust Mite's Allergy Approved by Delphi Consensus

Angelica Tiotiu  1   2 , Fulvio Braido  3 , Krysztof Kowal  4   5 , Guillermo Guidos Fogelbach  6 , Herberto Chong Neto  7 , Juan Carlos Ivancevich  8 , Daniela Muti  9 , Francisco-Javier Gonzalez-Barcala  10   11   12 , Paschalis Steiropoulos  13 , Silviya Novakova  14 , Denislava Nedeva  15 , Plamena Novakova  16 , Stefan Mihaicuta  17 , Jonathan Bernstein  18 , Arzu Yorgancioglu  19 , Pierachille Santus  20 , Andras Bikov  21   22 , Giorgio Walter Canonica  23   24 , Charles Pilette  25   26
Affiliations
Review

Questionnaire for Clinical Diagnosis of House Dust Mite's Allergy Approved by Delphi Consensus

Angelica Tiotiu et al. Clin Rev Allergy Immunol. .

Abstract

Despite house dust mite (HDM)-allergy is the most frequent in the world, no standard questionnaire exists to help physicians in their clinical practice for screening patients with this possible diagnosis. The objective of this survey was to develop a questionnaire that could be used to identify patients with suspicion of HDM-allergy. The survey was conducted using the Delphi methodology. Nineteen international experts in allergology constituted the scientific board who established the items included in the first version of the questionnaire, defined the criteria of the selection for the next steps, and validated the final questionnaire and its interpretation. The initial version of the questionnaire included 15 items. For each item, five answers were suggested graduated by scores from "no importance" to "very high importance." The predefined conditions for the item selection after each round were a median score ≥ 7 and > 50% of responses according "high importance" and "very high importance." The electronic survey circulated within the Interasma Scientific Network platform. Eight questions based on the occurrence/worsening of symptoms induced by HDM-allergen exposure meet the survey criteria after the second and the third rounds and were included in the final questionnaire. Binomial answers for each question with 1 point accorded for "Yes" and none for "No" were suggested for the final version with a score ≥ 5 points associated with a high probability for HDM-allergy. By applying the Delphi process, we generated a brief questionnaire with binomial answers, easy to use in clinical practice for screening patients with HDM-allergy.

Keywords: Clinical diagnosis; HDM-allergy; Questionnaire; Screening; Survey.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing Interests: AT reports honoraria for lectures, presentations, speakers bureaus, educational events from AstraZeneca, BMS, Roche; support for attending meetings and/or travel from Chiesi; consulting fees from AstraZeneca FB reports grants from Chiesi, GSK, Vitalaire; consulting fees from AstraZeneca, GSK, Chiesi, Menarini; honoraria for presentations from Menarini group, AstraZeneca, GSK, Chiesi, Novartis; he is president of Interasma KK reports licenses for UpToDate; honoraria for presentations from ALK, AstraZeneca, Aurivitas Pharma, Berlin Chemie, Chiesi, Emma MDT, Stallergenes; support for attending meetings from Berlin Chemie GGF reports honoraria from Reprints Unlimited HCG reports consulting fees from AstraZeneca, Novartis, Sanofi; honoraria for presentations from AstraZeneca, Novartis, Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, Takeda JCI reports honoraria for presentations from Laboratorios Casasco; leadership for World Allergy Organization, Latin American Society of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology DM, SN, PN, JB, AY, AB have no conflict of interest to declare. FJGB reports grants from GSK; consulting fees from ALK, AstraZeneca, Bial, Chiesi, Gebro Pharma, GSK, Menarini, Novartis, Rovi, Roxall, Sanofi, Stallergenes-Greer, Teva; support for attending meetings from ALK, Menarini, Sanofi; participation on Advisory Boards from ALK, AstraZeneca, GSK, Menarini, Novartis, Sanofi, Teva PS reports consulting fees from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Elpen, GSK, Guidotti, Menarini, Specialty Therapeutics; honoraria for presentations from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Elpen, GSK, Guidotti, Menarini, Novartis, Pfizer, ResMed, Specialty Therapeutics; support for attending meetings from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Elpen, GSK, Guidotti, Menarini, Pfizer DN reports honoraria for presentations from AstraZeneca, Berlin Chemie, Chiesi, Takeda; support for attending meetings from AstraZeneca, Stallergen SM reports grants from GSK; honoraria for presentations from AstraZeneca, Gebro Pharma, Sanofi PiS reports consulting fees from AstraZeneca, Sanofi, Dompe, Gilead; honoraria for presentations from Menarini, Edmondpharma, GSK; leadership for Italian Respiratory Society GWC reports consulting fees from AstraZeneca, GSK, Menarini, Stallergenes, Sanofi; honoraria for presentations from AstraZeneca, GSK, Menarini, Stallergenes, Sanofi, Menarini, Chiesi; support for attending meetings from AstraZeneca, Menarini, Stallergenes, Sanofi, Menarini CP reports consulting fees from AstraZeneca, Chiesi, GSK, Sanofi; honoraria for presentations from AstraZeneca, Chiesi, GSK, Sanofi.

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