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Investigation of Asthma Comorbidity in Children with Different Severities of Allergic Rhinitis

Background Allergic rhinitis (AR) and asthma comorbidity is widely seen. However, the effects of AR on asthma are more likely to be studied in the literature. Objective To investigate the prevalence of asthma in children with AR who are followed-up and to evaluate the effect of asthma on the severity of AR. Methods A total of 509 children with AR who were followed-up in the pediatric allergy-immunology department between January 2012 and December 2013 were enrolled in the study. Asthma and AR are diagnosed by using the Global Initiative for Asthma and the Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma, respectively. The patients were categorized into two groups according to the presence of asthma. The two groups were compared according to sociodemographic characteristics, clinical features, and laboratory findings. Skin-prick test results, serum immunoglobulin E levels, and the percentage of eosinophils of the patients were evaluated. Results A total of 299 of the patients were boys (58.7%) the mean age was 7.2 ± 3.5 years (range, 1.5-18 years). Patients with moderate-severe persistent rhinitis (40.5% of all patients) were the most common rhinitis subgroup. Mild intermittent rhinitis was diagnosed in 17.7%, mild persistent rhinitis in 11.2%, and moderate-severe intermittent rhinitis in 30.6% of the patients. Two hundred seventy-one children with AR (53.2%) also had concomitant asthma. The patients were categorized into two groups: AR-asthma comorbidity group (group I) and AR-only group (group II). There was no significant difference between these two groups when compared with the sex, age, familial atopy, exposure to smoke, and severity of AR (p > 0.05). The duration of illness, immunoglobulin E levels, number of positive sensitivity, sensitivity to house-dust mites, sensitivity to cockroaches, and polysensitization were significantly higher in the AR-asthma comorbidity group (p < 0.05). Conclusion This study showed that asthma comorbidity had no effect on the severity of AR. However, it was also shown that the majority of children with AR had asthma comorbidity. For these purposes, the presence of asthma should be investigated in children with AR, independent of severity.