Profiles of birch sensitization (Bet v 1,Bet v 2,and Bet v 4) and oral allergy syndrome across Italy

Background: birch allergy (ba) is a common pollinosis caused by the allergens bet v 1,bet v 2,and bet v 4. oral allergy syndrome (oas) is frequently associated with ba. a gradient of sensitization to birch allergen across europe has been reported. therefore,this study aimed to investigate the birch sensitization profile,including oas,across italy. methods: we performed a retrospective study of 854 patients (391 males,mean age 35.9 years,range 18-93 years): 196 patients were recruited in genoa,188 in northern italy,359 in central italy,and 111 in southern italy. serum ige to bet v 1,bet v 2,and bet v 4 was assessed,and oas was analyzed. results: with respect to the geographical path genoa-north-center-south,the frequency of sensitization to bet v 1 decreased significantly (p<.0001) from genoa (95.41%) to southern italy (58.56%). the frequency of sensitization to bet v 2 increased significantly (p<.0001) from genoa (6.12%) to southern italy (52.25%). the frequency of bet v 4 also increased significantly (p=.0002) from genoa (6.12%) to southern italy (14.41%). the distribution of patients with oas differed significantly across the areas (p<.0001),the most marked difference ranging between 33.5% in genoa and 76.9% in northern italy. the frequency of birch allergens correlated with oas in central italy only. conclusions: the present study demonstrated a significant difference between sensitization to birch and its clinical expression across italy. © 2016 esmon publicidad.