The prevalence of AIA in Poland is 4.3%, being somewhat lower than in Finland and Australia, where it was recently reported to account for 8.8 and 10.9% of the adult asthmatics, respectively. These figures indicate that aspirin hypersensitivity might be a significant community problem.

The objective of our study was to evaluate the impact of sex and age on the prevalence of sensitization to inhalant allergens. The study was performed as a part of Polish Epidemiology of Allergic Diseases study, and data concerning citizens of Wroclaw were analyzed. The participants were divided into three age groups (6–7, 13–14, and 20–44 years) with a subdivision according to sex. We randomly selected 1409 individuals, 439 people complied; the complete set of tests was performed on 421 of them. We found that 37.7 % of the study population demonstrated sensitization to at least one of the allergens tested. Positive skin tests were found more frequently in males than in females (p = 0.003); among 6–7-year-old children, the sensitization was independent of sex (p = 0.26), while in two other groups, it was higher in males (p = 0.002 and p = 0.03, respectively). Clinically asymptomatic sensitization (AS) was found more often in females than in males (p = 0.04). The higher rate of AS in women was observed only in the two younger age groups, while in the 20–44-year-old group AS did not differ between the sexes (p = 0.72). Female sex hormones may contribute to a later change in the nature of sensitization from clinically asymptomatic to symptomatic. Further studies are needed to confirm the results of our study.

Background. Males and females exhibit different susceptibility to allergic diseases. Objectives. The aim of the study was to evaluate gender-related differences in the prevalence of allergic diseases in Poland. Material and Methods. To evaluate this problem, data from the Polish Multicenter Study of the Epidemiology of Allergic Diseases (PMSEAD) was analyzed. There were assessed 16,238 individuals, aged 3 to 80 years, among them 12,970 adults and 3,268 children. Results. In adults the prevalence of asthma was 5.4%, seasonal allergic rhinitis 8.5%, persistent allergic rhinitis 3.0%, atopic dermatitis 1.6%, contact dermatitis 2.0%, and drug allergy 8.6%. In children asthma was diagnosed in 8.6% of the individuals assessed, seasonal allergic rhinitis in 8.6%, persistent allergic rhinitis in 2.1%, atopic dermatitis in 4.7%, contact dermatitis in 1.1% and drug allergy in 8.9%. Among the children in the sample, significantly higher prevalence rates were found in boys than in girls for asthma (10.9% vs. 6.3%; OR = 1.81; p < 0.001), seasonal allergic rhinitis (9.8% vs 7.4%; OR = 1.37, p = 0.018) and persistent allergic rhinitis (2.6% vs. 1.5%; OR = 1.74, p = 0.029). When comparing the differences by gender among adults, there was a lower proportion of male than female subjects suffering from asthma (4.9% vs. 5.8%; OR = 0.83, p = 0.018), seasonal allergic rhinitis (7.6% vs. 9.3%; OR = 0.81, p = 0.001), atopic dermatitis (1.1% vs. 2.0%; OR = 0.53, p < 0.001), contact dermatitis (1.1% vs. 2.8%; OR = 0.39; p < 0.001) and drug allergy (5.1% vs. 11.6%; OR = 0.41, p < 0.001). Conclusions. The opposite susceptibility to allergic diseases among children and adults may indicate that sex hormones play an important role in this phenomenon (Adv Clin Exp Med 2014, 23, 5, 757-762).

The aim of the study was to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of allergen-induced basophil CD164 upregulation in patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis caused by allergy to grass pollens. This study was performed in 24 patients with allergy to grass pollens, and in 25 healthy controls. The protocol for allergen-induced basophil CD164 upregulation consisted of whole blood samples processing and staining with anti-CCR3/anti-CD164 antibodies added to a buffer at the beginning of stimulation. We observed dose-dependent allergen-induced basophil CD164 upregulation with 100% of specificity in both used allergen concentrations (12 and 1.2 ng/ml). Higher allergen concentration resulted in 100% and lower concentration in only 70.83% sensitivity. We have observed in the patients statistically significant correlations between anti-IgE stimulation and both allergen concentrations (for 12 ng/ml, r = 0.71, p < 0.0001; and for 1.2 ng/ml, r = 0.64, p < 0.001). We conclude that assessment of allergen-induced basophil CD164 upregulation is a very useful method for in vitro determination of allergy to grass pollens. This method seems to be a very promising tool in laboratory testing of allergies to other allergens.

Irreversible airflow obstruction may develop in some cases of asthma even in absence of known risk factors such as smoking and environmental insults and despite implementing apparently appropriate therapy. This implies that genetic factors may significantly contribute to determining the severity in the course of the disease. The published reports on genetic predisposition to irreversible bronchoconstriction in asthma, however, are relatively scarce, and disregard its potential association with transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1 gene polymorphism despite established role that TGF-beta1 plays in airway remodelling. We tested TGF-beta1 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at position +869 of codon 10 (leucine or proline) and position +915 of codon 25 (arginine or proline) for association with irreversible bronchoconstriction in a case-control study involving 110 patients with asthma and 109 controls. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that genotype G/G at codon 25 was significantly associated with irreversible bronchoconstriction in asthmatics (odds ratio = 4.44; 95% confidence interval: 1.00-19.61; P = 0.05), but only after adjustment for gender, disease duration and smoking index. The influence of SNPs at codon 10 on irreversible airway obstruction was not significant. Our results suggest that presence of SNP (+915G/G) at codon 25 in TGF-beta1 gene may predispose to the development of irreversible bronchoconstriction in asthmatic patients, but only when coincident with the male gender, habitual smoking and relevant duration of the disease.