The “allergic nose as a pollen detector” concept: e‐Diaries to predict pollen trends

Abstract

Seasonal allergic rhino-conjunctivitis (SAR) affects patients exposed to pollen to which they are sensitized. The etiological diagnosis and allergen immunotherapy (AIT) of SAR require a demonstration that exposure to the sensitizing pollen triggers allergic symptoms. In routine clinical practice, this causal effect link is suspected in many ways, the most simple one being a thorough assessment of clinical history: allergists match the patient's symptomatic period with the local pollen calendar and then verify whether the patient is sensitized in vivo (skin prick test) or in vitro (IgE-antibody assays) to the candidate culprit pollen. 1 However, recall biases make the diagnosis based on retrospective data somewhat imprecise, especially in patients genuinely or apparently sensitized to multiple pollens