Maternal pollinosis, allergic conjunctivitis may be associated with infantile hemangioma

Maternal lifetime incidence of pollinosis and allergic conjunctivitis was observed as new predictive factors for infantile hemangioma, according to a letter in Journal of Investigative Dermatology.

“Infantile hemangioma (IH) is the most common vascular tumor of infancy Megumi Mizawa, MD, PhD, of the department of dermatology, faculty of medicine, academic assembly, University of Toyama, Japan, and colleagues wrote. “We evaluated the incidence of and environmental risk factors for IH using data from the Japan Environment and Children’s Study, a large-scale nationwide epidemiological study.”

The analysis included 85,244 mother-infant pairs. The findings showed an average gestational age of 39.2 ± 1.6 weeks, with an average birth weight 3,010 ± 428 g.

Infant boys comprised 51.3% of the cohort, while 42.2% were the first child and 98.2% were single births. More than 70% of mothers were younger than 35 years, while nearly 75% had a BMI between 18.5 and 25 before pregnancy. Spontaneous conception was reported in 92.1% of the cohort.

For infants aged 1 year, an IH incidence rate of 0.72% was reported.

A correlation between maternal lifetime incidence of pollinosis and IH was observed (adjusted OR = 1.27; 95% CI, 1.07-1.51). Other associations with IH included male gender (adjusted OR = 0.48; 95% CI, 0.40-0.56), gestational age (adjusted OR = 0.92; 95% CI, 0.87-0.97) and use of reproductive medicine (adjusted OR = 1.78; 95% CI, 1.26-2.50). In addition, a marginal association was observed between IH and allergic conjunctivitis (adjusted OR = 1.27; 95% CI, 1.00-1.63).

More than 16 years of education also was associated with IH (adjusted OR = 1.31; 95% CI, 1.04-1.65).

While asthma and congenital anomaly were associated with IH in the adjusted analysis, the trend failed to persist through sensitivity analyses.

Pre-term, post-term or full-term birth did not significantly alter IH risk.

“Maternal lifetime incidence of pollinosis and allergic conjunctivitis were newly identified as significant risk factors for IH,” the researchers wrote. “The potential link between IH and the maternal lifetime incidence of pollinosis and allergic conjunctivitis warrants further investigation.”