科研之友
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摘要
objective: a mouth breather is someone who uses his/her oral cavity as main airway during breathing. this is a syndrome with several etiologies, but allergic rhinitis plays a key role due to its high prevalence. the aim of this study was to assess the presence of atopy among mouth-breathing patients referred to a tertiary care center in the metropolitan region of belo horizonte, brazil. methods: cross-sectional, descriptive study carried out at hospital das cl赤nicas of universidade federal de minas gerais. patients aged 2 to 12 years, admitted between november 2002 and april 2004, were included. parents or surrogates completed a comprehensive questionnaire, and patients were submitted to a skin test for inhalant allergens. a total of 140 patients participated in the study. those with a positive result for at least one allergen were regarded as atopic. the statistical analyses were made using spss, with univariate analyses followed by logistic regression. results: of 140 patients, 44.3% (62/140) obtained positive results on the allergic test. mites were the most predominant allergens, with a positive rate of 100% among atopic patients. in the multivariate analysis, atopy was significantly associated with the male sex (p = 0.05), presence of asthma (p = 0.014), lower number of people sleeping in the same room with the patient (p = 0.005), absence of passive smoking (p = 0.005) and absence of sleep apnea (p = 0.003). conclusion:the high prevalence of positive results on the allergic test highlights the importance of allergologic investigation in mouth-breathers, since allergy has specific treatments that may reduce morbidity in these patients when properly used.
