| Abstract [eng] |
The Author: Gabrielė Džiugaitė, 5th year student of Master‘s Degree in Pharmacy at Vilnius University, Faculty of Medicine Academic supervisor: Prof., Dr. Violeta Kvedarienė, Vilnius University Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Clinic of Chest Diseases, Immunology and Allergology, Vilnius, Lithuania. Title: Correlation between Allergic Diseases and Infertility The aim of the study: To perform a case-control analysis of fertile women and women diagnosed with infertility of unknown origin, to assess the clinical and molecular component profile of allergy to household allergens. Objectives: 1. To compare the incidence of allergic disorders in fertile women and women with a diagnosis of infertility of unknown origin. 2. To analyse differences in the clinical presentation of allergic disorders between fertile women and women with a diagnosis of infertility of unknown origin. 3. To compare differences in molecular component profiles. Materials and methods: The prospective observational study was conducted in two phases, based on the approvals of the Lithuanian Bioethics Committee. The first phase consisted of interviewing, examination and review of medical records. Based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, 40 patients were selected for the study. Of these, 16 women with infertility of unknown origin and 24 fertile patients. In a second step, venous blood serum samples were collected for the molecular allergy diagnostic ALEX2 Allergy Explorer test. Statistical analysis of the small sample data was performed using Microsoft Excel 2016 and R Commander (version 4.3.3) with Rcmdr package (version 2.9-2). Results: According to the medical history of all subjects, 14 (35.00%) patients claimed to have allergy-related diseases, while 26 (65.00%) patients claimed to have no allergic diseases. Separately, 8 (50.00%) women in the infertile group and 6 (25.00%) in the fertile group had a diagnosis of allergic disease. The distribution of the incidence of allergic diseases between the groups showed that both groups had the highest incidence of atopic dermatitis. In the fertile group there were 5 (21.00%) patients, in the infertile group - 5 (31.00%) women. Nevertheless, all p-values between the study groups are >0.05, indicating that there are no statistically significant differences between allergic diseases and fertility. The molecular component profile of allergen sensitisation of the patients was determined from the results of the ALEX2 study. A total of 26 (65.00%) subjects were sensitised to at least one molecular allergenic component, while 14 (35.00%) women had no sensitisation. In terms of patient groups, 11 (69.00%) women with infertility of unknown origin, 11 (46.00%) fertile women had sensitisation to at least one molecular allergenic component. There was a statistically significant difference in sensitisation to the molecular allergenic component of the house dust mite D. pteronyssinus (Der p 23), with a p-value <0.05 (p=0.0488). However, there were no statistically significant differences in the sensitisation of patients to other molecular allergic components. No sensitisation was found at all in the milk, egg, cereal, spice, seed, etc. groups. Conclusions: 1. Patients with a diagnosis of infertility of unknown origin are more prone to allergic disorders than fertile women. 2. The allergic disease clinic of fertile women and women with a diagnosis of infertility of unknown origin did not differ statistically significantly, and both groups had the highest incidence of atopic dermatitis. 3. Differences in molecular component profiles were found between the subjects, with no statistically significant differences observed. With the exception of the Der p 23 molecular component, which was statistically significant, women with a diagnosis of infertility of unknown origin had a higher sensitivity to it. |
