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Children with allergies at greater risk for primary immune thrombocytopenia
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Children with common allergic diseases such as atopic dermatitis and allergic rhinitis showed a greater risk for developing primary immune thrombocytopenia, according to study results.
“The findings reveal that most of the allergic diseases investigated in this study, including allergic rhinitis (AR), atopic dermatitis (AD), urticaria, and allergic conjunctivitis (AC), were consistently associated with an increased risk of developing primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) both before and after the occurrence of allergic disease,” researchers in Taiwan wrote.
The researchers conducted a population-based, case-control study from the National Health Insurance Research Database on 1,203 children aged younger than 18 years who were diagnosed with ITP between 1998 and 2008, along with 4,812 controls. The investigators sought to determine any link between allergic diseases and the risk for developing ITP during childhood.
The highest risk for developing ITP occurred in children (n = 207) with AR (adjusted OR = 1.84; 95% CI, 1.49-2.27), followed by those (n = 84) with AD (aOR = 1.66; 95% CI, 1.25-2.21) and children (n = 108) with AC (aOR = 1.39; 95% CI, 1.09-1.79) or urticaria (aOR = 1.39; 95% CI, 0.98-1.97). Children with asthma did not show an increased risk for ITP, while the risk was greater for children with an increasing number of concurrent allergic diseases.
Because it was a cross-sectional study, the researchers wrote, causality between the allergies and ITP could not be determined, thus limiting the study results.
“However, this study clearly demonstrates an association between allergic diseases and increased risk of ITP in a high number of patients,” the researchers wrote. “Further investigations on the environmental and genetic factors and common immunological aberrancies related to allergies and ITP are warranted.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.