Study of validation of a questionnaire by skin testing in house dust mite allergy

Autor: P Grimberg, S. Huet, J.-E. Autegarden, Francisque Leynadier
Rok vydání: 2001
Předmět:
Zdroj: Revue Française d'Allergologie et d'Immunologie Clinique. 41:712-719
ISSN: 0335-7457
DOI: 10.1016/s0335-7457(01)00091-0
Popis: In all aspects of medicine, questioning is a key element of diagnosis, and it is particularly true in allergies. We undertook a study to try to establish its importance as a simple and costless way to orientate the practitioner in the diagnosis of mite allergy. For this purpose, we studied the correlation of a questionnaire to positive skin tests to mite. In this prospective study, 89 patients suffering from asthma and/or rhinitis and/or conjunctivitis were handed a questionnaire before being skin-tested and examined by the allergist. The questions asked concerned the quality of dwellings, the nature of bedding, and the circumstances and areas of occurrence of symptoms. Out of 81 patients entered in the study, 49 had positive skin tests to mites (60.5%) and 32 had negative skin tests to mites (39.5%). The items of the questionnaire that proved to correlate well with positive skin tests were respectively areas of occurrence of symptoms such as the bedroom, question number 1 ( P P P P P > 0.05). Combining these four items, we obtained a sensitivity of 83%. These items were subsequently tested on a second population of 145 patients. Sixty-five had positive prick-tests to mites and 80 negative tests to mites. Three out of four items singled out by the first questionnaire proved to be significant. The most significant of them was the episodic stay in a ‘weekend house’ ( P P -value of 0.008, the bedroom of 0.02. ‘Making beds’ was just below the significant range, with a P -value of 0.06. We therefore recommend such questions to be asked when seeing a patient presenting asthma and/or rhinitis and/or conjunctivitis. A positive answer should orientate the diagnosis towards mite allergy and lead to referral to an allergist.
Databáze: OpenAIRE