Selected articles

Allergic rhinitis treatment options include allergen immunotherapy (AIT). There are different guidelines and national practice parameters or care pathways for AIT. However, the decision to prescribe AIT should be personalized and based on the importance of the allergens and the persistence of the symptoms, even when using appropriate medications.

The practice of medicine has been revolutionized by digital transformation, including mHealth and artificial intelligence, where the patient is placed at the health system’s center. There are different biomarkers associated with mHealth and clinical decision support systems. However, there are two conditions that should be considered before any mHealth tool is used: comply with privacy regulations and validation. Of the few tools available for allergic rhinitis, evidence-based development was found for four Apps: MASK-air, AllergyMonitor, Polle, and Air Rater.

This review focuses on patient stratification for AIT, symptom medication scores for follow-up, clinical trials, and the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI).

Patient stratification is required to:

–           Identify the best candidates for intervention through complex care management

–           Reduce the time and resources needed to match a patient to a care management programme

–           Optimize costs.

Symptom medication scores are needed to assess the efficacy of AIT, especially in clinical trials and observational studies.

The EAACI task force was created to evaluate the state of the art and the future potential of technology in the field of allergic rhinitis. This task force evaluated the design, user engagement, content, potential of inducing behavioural change, credibility, and privacy policies of mHealth products.

In conclusion, mHealth technology is a potential tool to aid AIT’s decision-making, increase adherence, monitor efficacy and safety, and identify responders to the treatment. However, these tools may also have their inconveniences, namely if they are improperly used or are not validated.

One of the faster phases of human development is adolescence, with biological maturity anteceding psychosocial maturity. 15% of young people between 13 and 14 years old suffer from allergic rhinitis, double that of those with 6-7 years old. The prevalence of allergic rhinitis is higher in boys up to 10 years old. It reverses to girls having a higher prevalence during adolescence, and by adulthood, there are no differences in prevalence between genders.

Changes that occur in adolescence have health consequences over the life-course and impact the quality of life. Allergic rhinitis has a significant impact on the quality of life of adolescents and their parents: most antihistamines have sedating effects, school absences, and lower performance due to distraction, fatigue, and irritability. It also has a negative impact on the parents, who may become anxious, overprotective, and need to miss work.

Digital technology is the way to help an original approach to characterize allergic rhinitis signs and symptoms, as well as their connection with other allergic conditions. The treatment’s achievement lies in the partnership between teenagers with allergic rhinitis and mobile technology, letting them have more information available on the disease and its treatment.

In conclusion, there is some knowledge on challenges adolescents with asthma face, but some information lacks allergic rhinitis challenges.

Seasonal allergic rhinitis is characterized by local tissue eosinophilia and Th2-cytokines. Asthma is characterized by airway-remodeling and which conflicts with evidence for remodeling in allergic rhinitis. This study aimed to assess the relationship between allergic inflammation and features of remodeling in allergic rhinitis using a new human repetitive nasal allergen challenge.

This study included twelve patients with moderate-to-severe allergic rhinitis who underwent 5-alternate day challenges with diluent, followed after 4-weeks by 5-alternate day challenges with grass pollen extract. Nasal symptoms, Th1/Th2 cytokines in the nasal secretion, and blood were assessed. Nasal biopsies were taken one day after the first and fifth challenges with diluent and allergen. Sixteen healthy controls were challenged with diluent and allergen once. Epithelial and sub-mucosal inflammatory cells and remodeling markers were assessed by computed image analysis.

Allergic rhinitis symptoms increased after every allergen challenge compared to diluent (p<0.05), with evidence of both clinical and immunological priming. Nasal secretion tissue eosinophils and IL-5 increased significantly after nasal allergen challenge, compared to corresponding diluent challenges. Allergic rhinitis patients evidenced a correlation between submucosal mast cells and the early-phase clinical response and an association between epithelial eosinophils and IL-5 in nasal secretion. There were no differences after allergen challenge concerning epithelial integrity, reticular basement membrane thickness, glandular area, expression of markers of activation of airway-remodeling including α-SMA, HSP-47, extracellular matrix, angiogenesis, and lymphangiogenesis for allergic rhinitis compared to controls.

In conclusion, novel repetitive nasal allergen challenges in people with severe persistent allergic rhinitis yielded in tissue eosinophilia. They increased IL-5, but with no structural changes, which supports no relationship between Th2-inflammation and development of airway-remodeling in allergic rhinitis.