Allergic rhinitis pattern of allergen sensitivity

Aim: to analyze and quantify the allergen sensitivity pattern in local population suffering from allergic rhinitis. type of study: it is a simple observational study. place and duration of study: patients of allergic rhinitis reporting to ent department of avicenna hospital from 18th april 2012 and 20th september 2014 sampling technique: simple nonprobability random sampling. method: a total of 265 patients were included in the study. skin prick test was carried out in all the patients with 17 common allergens using hollister stier laboratories prick test allergens. positive and negative controls were also tested in all patients. results: maximum patients showed sensitivity to the insect group that included allergy to cockroach (66.4%) followed by house dust mite (50.9%). pollen group followed insect group and included grasses (20%) and tree mix (15.84%). other groups tested were fungus group including aspergillus (13.58%),candida (12.45%) and alternaria (7.16%),animal group including cat (8.67%) and dog (4.91%) and eatables group (egg,chicken,peanut,fish beef and milk). mean age group of allergic rhinitis patients was 26 years with male to female ration being 2.6:1. conclusion: symptoms of allergic rhinitis can be reduced by avoiding exposure to cockroaches,house dust,grasses,tree mix and fungi,as they are the most common allergens encountered in our setup. their extract must be a part of allergy kit used for allergy testing for allergic rhinitis.