ARIA classification showed better representation of allergic symptoms and QOL than did the SAR/PAR classification.

Original Article  Open Access

|  | Full Text    |    Allergy Asthma Immunol Res. 2013 Mar;5(2):75-80. English. Published online 2012 November 27.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4168/aair.2013.5.2.75  Copyright © 2013 The Korean Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Clinical Immunology • The Korean Academy of Pediatric Allergy and Respiratory Disease Seasonal Specificity of Seasonal Allergens and Validation of the ARIA Classification in Korea Young-Jun Chung, Il-Kwon Cho, Ki-Il Lee, Sung-Hyen Bae, Jae-Wook Lee, Phil-Sang Chung and Ji-Hun Mo Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Dankook University College of Medicine, Cheonan, Korea.  Correspondence to: Ji-Hun Mo, MD, PhD, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Dankook University College of Medicine, 119 Dandae-ro, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan 330-997, Korea. Tel: +82-41-550-3933; Fax: +82-41-556-1090; Email:jihunmo@gmail.com Young-Jun Chung and Il-Kwon Cho contributed equally to this work. Received November 29, 2011; Revised August 16, 2012; Accepted September 06, 2012. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.  This article has been cited by 1 article in    This article has been cited by 1 article in  KoMCI Abstract Purpose In Korea, tree pollens are known to be prevalent in spring, grass pollens in summer and weed pollens in autumn. However, few studies have revealed their seasonal specificity for allergic rhinitis symptoms. An ARIA (Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma) classification of allergic rhinitis was recently introduced and its clinical validation has not been well proved. The aim of this study was to evaluate the seasonal specificity of seasonal allergens and to validate the ARIA classification with the conventional seasonal and perennial allergic rhinitis (SAR/PAR) classification. Methods Two hundred twenty six patients with allergic rhinitis were included in this study. The patients were classified according to the sensitized allergens and the ARIA classifications. A questionnaire survey was performed and the data on the seasonal symptom score, the severity of symptoms and the SNOT (sinonasal outcome test)-20 score was obtained and the data was analyzed and compared between the conventional SAR/PAR classification and the ARIA classification. Results Seasonal pollens (tree, grass, weed) were not specific to the pollen peak season and the patients' symptoms were severe during spring and autumn regardless of the offending pollens. More than 60% of the patients with SAR showed persistent symptoms and 33% of the patients with perennial allergic rhinitis (PAR) had intermittent symptoms, showing the lack of association between the SAR/PAR/PAR+SAR classification and the ARIA classification. The ARIA classification showed better association not only with the symptomatic score, but also with the SNOT-20 score, which showed better validity than the conventional SAR/PAR classifications. Conclusions Seasonal pollens were not specific to their season of prevalence in terms of the severity of symptoms, and the ARIA classification showed better representation of allergic symptoms and quality of life (SNOT-20 score) than did the SAR/PAR classification.