Sensitivity to Parietaria pollen in Izmir, Turkey as determined by skin prick and serum specific IgE values

As the first study of its kind in the Aegean region of Turkey, we examined the incidence of sensitivity to Parietaria pollen in patients with allergic rhinitis and/or asthma living in the Mediterranean climate of the Aegean coast. On the Mediterranean, there are characteristic climatic conditions (mild winters, dry summers, etc.) which facilitate the growth of a typical vegetation and the production of allergenic pollen, such as that from Parietaria. These pollen types differ greatly from those of central and northern Europe. We skin tested 132 patients with a clinical history of seasonal rhinitis and/or asthma symptoms. Each patient was skin tested with extracts of grass, weed, tree and cereal pollens, and serum samples were collected for specific IgE assays for Parietaria. Sixty-nine of the 132 patients (52%) showed skin reactivity to Parietaria; seven of these (10%) had monosensitization to Parietaria. Fifty-six out of 69 patients (81%) had specific IgE in their serum to Parietaria pollen. Based on skin test reactions, we concluded that Parietaria is important in terms of clinical symptoms and that it is the most common weed pollen in the Aegean region in Turkey.