RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is unpredictable and can severely impair patients' quality of life. Patients with CSU need a convenient, user-friendly platform to complete patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) on their mobile devices. CRUSE® , the Chronic Urticaria Self Evaluation app, aims to address this unmet need. METHODS: CRUSE® was developed by an international steering committee of urticaria specialists. Priorities for the app based on recent findings in CSU were defined to allow patients to track and record their symptoms and medication use over time and send photographs. The CRUSE® app collects patient data such as age, sex, disease onset, triggers, medication, and CSU characteristics that can be sent securely to physicians, providing real-time insights. Additionally, CRUSE® contains PROMs to assess disease activity and control, which are individualised to patient profiles and clinical manifestations. RESULTS: CRUSE® was launched in Germany in March 2022 and is now available for free in 17 countries. It is adapted to the local language and displays a country-specific list of available urticaria medications. English and Ukrainian versions are available worldwide. From July 2022 to June 2023, 25,710 observations were documented by 2540 users; 72.7% were females, with a mean age of 39.6 years. At baseline, 93.7% and 51.3% of users had wheals and angioedema, respectively. Second-generation antihistamines were used in 74.0% of days. CONCLUSIONS: The initial data from CRUSE® show the wide use and utility of effectively tracking patients' disease activity and control, paving the way for personalised CSU management.
RESUMO
House dust mite (HDM) allergens are considered to be one of the most common causes of asthma and allergic rhinitis in the world. Cysteine proteases Der p 1 and Der f 1 (group 1) and also NPC 2 family proteins Der p 2 and Der f 2 (group 2) of D. pteronyssinus and D. farinae respectively are considered the main allergens of HDMs. The difference in the sensitivity of the population to these and other allergy causing components of HDM determines the treatment strategy. Thus, the purpose of this work was to determine the pattern of sensitization of the Ukrainian population to individual allergy causing molecular components of HDM in order to improve treatment strategies for the HDM allergy in various regions of Ukraine. To determine the molecular profile of sensitization to HDM, the data of multiplex allergy test Alex2 have been obtained from 10,651 patients. The sample included 57.86% children under the age of 18 and 42.14% adults. A Python language-based statistical analysis was performed, in order to group patients by sensitization to individual molecules and their combinations, regarding the age and geographical location of the patients. Simultaneous sensitization to Der f 2 and Der p 2 allergens was the most common among the entire group Simultaneous sensitization to 5 molecules-of group 1 (Der p 1 and Der f 1), group 2 (Der f 2 and Der p 2), and Der p 23-was the second most common for entire dataset and for the children group. This pattern differed in adults, where monosensitization to Der p 23 occupied the second position, suggesting that this molecule is an important factor of HDM allergy in Ukraine. Of the 16 analyzed regions, sensitization to Der p 23 prevailed in 2 Western regions of Ukraine. In the rest of the regions combination of Der p 2 and Der f 2 was the most prevalent. The established character of population sensitization to HDM in Ukraine is a good prognostic marker of allergen immunotherapy (AIT) efficacy.
