Influence of birch bark dusting intensity on the peculiarities of the course of pollinosis in children

Rationale: the problem of the growth of allergic diseases associated with plant pollination is urgent. At present, numerous works discuss the influence of global warming on the onset, intensity and duration of plant pollination. An increase in the total annual pollen concentration in the aeropalynological spectrum is noted. For the Central Federal District (CFD) of Russia, pollination of woody wind-pollinated plants, particularly birch, is of the greatest clinical significance.
Objective: to study the clinical characteristics of birch pollinosis in children of the city of Ryazan and Ryazan region in the season of 2023 in conditions of intensive dusting of birch (Betula).
Materials and methods. An open single-centre retrospective randomized uncontrolled cohort study was conducted. The study included 211 children who sought emergency medical care from 01.02.2023 to 30.06.2023 in hospital or polyclinic with symptoms of bronchial asthma, allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis. The time frame of the study was February to June 2023. In parallel, prospective aerobiological monitoring with the help of Lanzoni volumetric trap ‘VPPS 2000’ and analysis of search queries of residents of Ryazan and Ryazan region in the system ‘Yandex Wordstat’ were conducted. For statistical processing of the obtained results, Past 4.03 software and SPSS V24.0 package were used, including descriptive statistics.
Results. According to the data of aerobiological studies in the season 2023 record high concentration of birch pollen for the last 9 years of observations. This resulted in a high incidence of emergency visits to health care facilities with symptoms of pollinosis. The main age group of children who applied was from 7 to 12 years old, but there were also cases of children under 3 years old, which indicates rejuvenation of the pollynosis debut. There was a dependence on sex, as the number of boys who applied was 2.5 times higher than the number of girls who applied. Bronchial asthma predominated in the structure of clinical phenotypes of children urgently hospitalised, and half of all asthma cases were its manifestation. A moderate positive association (r = 0.4; p = 0.002) between airborne pollen concentration and the number of children who sought care was found in hospitalised patients when aeropalynological monitoring and clinic data were compared.
Conclusion. The peculiarity of the pollen season in 2023 in the Ryazan region (Central Federal District of the Russian Federation) is the record high concentration of birch pollen for the last 9 years of observations. This led to an increase in the number of children with emergency symptoms of respiratory and cutaneous pollinosis.

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