Introduction
An allergic reaction occurs when mastocytes bind to an antibody-antigen
complex and release inflammatory mediators, the most defining one being
histamine. Around the world, for many decades, allergy prevalence has risen,
and Switzerland is no exception. Importantly, the molecular structure of
allergens contributes to clinical manifestations and severity of allergies.
Methods
In this study, we performed a retrospective analysis of the IgE multiplex
results over the last ten years, from December 2011 to December 2021.
Patients with explicit refusal to the general consent (n=8), quality controls and
duplicates (n=174) were excluded. Male and female were imputed based on
their names. Five age groups were defined <10, 10-17, 18-44, 45-64, >64.
The IgE sensitisation profiles were analysed using SPSS.
Results
We retrieved the results of 1245 IgE multiplex. The database contained a
majority of women, 66%. The highest sensitisation rate was found in the 10-
17 age group, and the lowest rate concerned the over 64s. Males were more
frequently associated with a positive test than females. People were
predominantly sensitised against grass- and birch-derived pollens. The
spectrum of sensitisation over the past decade remained stable. Most of the
tests (60.2%) were prescribed by the allergy units from university hospitals.
Conclusion
This is the first study analysing the number and type of sensitisation in a large
population from Switzerland over time and across different ages. While the
absence of clinical correlations prevents the analysis of the relevance of those
sensitisations, their number and frequencies remained overall stable.