Sensitization to mites in the La Lisa municipality, Cuba. 8 year study

Abstract

House dust mites are the most important allergens in exacerbations of allergic diseases. A descriptive-cross-sectional study was carried out from January 2008 to December 2015 with the objective of describing the behavior of sensitization to domestic mites and its relationship with allergic diseases. From a universe of 4614 patients, 4585 were included, aged between 1 and 83 years, of both sexes. The test was performed by skin prick with extracts allergens of Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, Dermatophagoides siboney and Blomia tropicalis at 20,000 BU/mL, with a negative control of diluent solution and a positive control of histamine, 1mg/1mL. The patients were positive for histamine with wheals larger than 3mm and those of the negative control were between 0 and 2mm. The variables studied were: age, sex, diseases that motivated the consultation and positive awareness. For statistical analysis, the Chi square test of independence was applied. 68.04% of the cases (3120 patients) were children; The most frequent group was 5 to 11 years old, with 33.4% of the total (1,533). 190 tests were performed on patients aged 60 and older. The most frequent diseases were allergic rhinitis with 3423 patients (74.6%), followed by bronchial asthma with 2136 (46.6%). Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus was the allergen with the highest incidence, 3350 (76.1%), followed by Blomia tropicalis with 71.7% and Dermatophagoides siboney with 70.2%. It is concluded that rhinitis is the most frequent disease and there is a high sensitization to the three mites in the La Lisa municipality.