PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Ferdaous Yangui AU - Hend Khouani AU - Maher Abouda AU - Rimeh Ayayri AU - Mariem Triki AU - Samia Sellami AU - Emna Guermazi AU - Mohamed Ridha Charfi TI - Changes in pollen sensitization over last twenty years in Tunisia AID - 10.1183/13993003.congress-2015.OA4469 DP - 2015 Sep 01 TA - European Respiratory Journal PG - OA4469 VI - 46 IP - suppl 59 4099 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/46/suppl_59/OA4469.short 4100 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/46/suppl_59/OA4469.full SO - Eur Respir J2015 Sep 01; 46 AB - Background: The prevalence of allergic diseases has increased for several decades. During the last years there is a possible change in the pattern of sensitization to different aeroallergens in atopic patients.Objectives: The aim of this study was based on the hypothesis that during last twenty years there has been a change in the structure of prevalence of sensitization to pollens in atopic patients.Patients and methods: It wasa prospective study including patients with allergic diseases, who were diagnosed from 1995 to 2014. Skin-prick tests (SPT) were performed with common aeroallergens. We compare the results of SPT on two different periods of 10 years each, a first period (P1) from 1995 to 2004 and a second period (P2) from 2005 to 2014.Results: We included 8807 patients during last twenty years with 4818 (54.7%) positive SPT. The average age of patients with a positive SPT was 24.4 years with a sex ratio of 1.3. Proportion of positive SPT significantly increased from P1 to P2 (47.3% vs 65.4%, p<10−6). The sensitization rate to pollen, in this last twenty years was 44.1%. Proportion of sensitized individuals to pollen significantly increased from P1 to P2 (38.6% vs 49.7%, p<10−6) with a significant increase in the proportion of sensitized individuals to tree pollen (12.7% vs 18.5%, p=10−6) and grasses pollen (14.6% vs 18.2%, p=6 10−3), while the proportion of sensitized to weed pollen decreased (15.4% vs 6%, p=10−6). Among tree pollens, skin reactivity to cypress pollen increased significantly (5.6% vs 12%, p=10−6).Conclusion: We found a significant change in the proportion of sensitization to different pollen groups and individual pollen species during the investigated two last decades.