Ambrosia Artemisiifolia L. a Roma: una presenza non più controversa

Among the alien species reported in Latium Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. deserves special consideration because of its potential danger for allergy subjects. The spread of the species in the area is relatively recent, and it’s among those normally moni- tored by the monitoring centres in Italy and Europe. More than ten years of observations aerobiological in the city of Rome have confirmed its presence. Its concentration seems to vary in relation to precipitation occurring before the summer

Status and Trend of the Main Allergenic Pollen Grains and Alternaria Spores in the City of Rome (2003-2019)

Today a large part of the European population is exposed to levels of air pollution exceeding the standards recommended by the World Health Organization. Moreover, air pollution and the seasonal emission of allergenic pollen are progressively affecting human health and can cause severe allergic reactions, particularly when air pollution combines with pollen allergen peaks. Unlike atmospheric pollutants of anthropogenic origin, pollen sources have a pulsating trend that leads to high values in the flowering period and values close to, or equal to, zero in the rest of the year. This aspect makes essential the definition of data coverage standards for the main allergenic taxa. For air quality assessment detailed classification criteria for monitoring stations are defined by international standards, not the same from the European Standards for the Sampling and analysis of airborne pollen grains and fungal spores. This paper describes the status and the air concentration trends of the main allergenic pollen and the Alternaria spore measured in Rome from 2003 to 2019 by the Aerobiological Monitoring Center of Tor Vergata (Rome) and calculated by the Seasonal Kendall test with the open-source OpenAir R package. The analysis was carried out on the daily concentrations of the most widespread allergenic taxa in Italy: Asteraceae, Betulaceae, Corylaceae, Cupressaceae/Taxaceae, Poaceae, Oleaceae, Urticaceae and the Alternaria spores

Multiple Monitoring Stations in Big Cities: First Example of Three Spore Traps in Rome

(1) Background: Rome is a municipality with an area of 1287 km(2) and presents floristic-vegetational complexity that is reflected in the composition of aerospora, which are responsible for pollinosis. The presence of airborne pollen can be detected by pollen monitoring. The large extent of the city's territory makes it possible to verify possible changes in pollen composition in different sites of the city. With this in mind, a study was conducted to assess the differences in airborne pollen concentration, considering phenological and production indicators at three different sites in the city. (2) Methods: Pollen data of eight taxa were considered, Alnus spp., Castanea sativa Miller, Cupressaceae-Taxaceae, Olea europaea L., Platanaceae, Poaceae, Quercus spp., and Urticaceae, during 2020 and 2021, using three monitoring samplers. The airborne pollen concentration and the seasons of the three centers were calculated and compared with each other. (3) Results: The diversity between the three samplers shows a phenological succession in accordance with the microclimatic diversity present in the city. The heterogeneity of the airborne pollen concentration reflects the floristic-vegetational diversity, while qualitative and quantitative parameters indicate a homogeneous flowering trend reflecting the seasonality of the various species. (4) Conclusions: The present work and the Italian geographic context suggest the need for a greater number of sampling points to guarantee a true localization of the data. Having several sampling stations also contributes to the protection of health and green areas, which are difficult to manage, conserve, and maintain

Heterogeneous validity of daily data on symptoms of seasonal allergic rhinitis recorded by patients using the e-diary AllergyMonitor®

Background: Patient-generated symptom and medication scores are essential for diagnostic and therapeutic decisions in seasonal allergic rhinitis (SAR). Previous studies have shown solid consistencies between different scores at population level in real-life data and trials. For clinicians, the evaluation of individual data quality over time is essential to decide whether to rely on these data in clinical decision-making. Objective: To analyze the consistency of different symptom (SS) and symptom medication scores (SMSs) at individual level in two study cohorts with different characteristics and explore individual patient trajectories over time. Methods: Within the pilot phase of the @IT.2020 project on diagnostic synergy of mobile health and molecular IgE assessment in patients with SAR, we analyzed data of 101 children and 93 adults with SAR and instructed them to record their symptoms and medication intake daily via the mobile app AllergyMonitor®. We then assessed the correlation between different SMS and a visual analogue scale (VAS) on the impact of allergy symptoms on daily life at population and individual level. Results: At population level, the Rhinoconjunctivitis total symptom score (RTSS) correlated better with VAS than the combined symptom and medication score (CSMS). At individual level, consistency among RTSS and VAS was highly heterogeneous and unrelated to disease severity or adherence to recording. Similar heterogeneity was observed for CSMS and VAS. Conclusions: The correlation of clinical information provided by different disease severity scores based on data collected via electronic diaries (e-diaries), is sufficient at population level, but broadly heterogeneous for individual patients. Consistency of the recorded data must be examined for each patient before remotely collected information is used for clinical decision making

Pollen forecast in Rome

Forecast modeling in aerobiology is proposed to achive forecasts that allow allergic population to intervene with targeted and accurate preventive therapies. This benefit not only the individual, but also the community, considering the social cost of pollinosis in terms of therapies and medical examinations and the indirect costs, linked to absenteeism from work and reduced productivity. The allergy is indicated by the WHO as an impor- tant pathology; [1] the trend is increasing [2]. The proposed forecasting model has the advantage of using free software that is easy to use and fast in data processing. The considered variables are: Cupressaceae, Olea europaea L., Platanaceae and Poaceae (Mon- itoring Centre - University Rome Tor Vergata), average daily temperature, daily precipitation, total daily radiation, average daily relative humidity and average daily wind speed [3,4] (Tor Vergata meteorological sta- tion - Regional Functional Center of the Regional Protection Agency of the Lazio Region), between January 1, 1997 and December 31, 2017. The package IBM⃝R SPSS STATICS⃝R 25 was using to measure the cross-correlation between the series of pollen concentrations and environmental variables and a statistical self-regressive model ARIMAX in R-3.3.3 type was using for forecasts. The degree of reliability of the daily is always more than 70 %: Cupressaceae 84 %, O. europaea 87 %, Pla- tanaceae 90 %, and Poaceae 72 %, showing a relationship between pollen concentrations and meteorological variables; in pieno accordo con la letteratura che individua in temperatura e radiazione solare le principali variabili temporali [5,6]. Understanding how pollen in air changes - the concentrations and the phenology of the pollen season - and predicting its trend, is of particular interest and closely related to respiratory allergies

Pollens causing allergy and their monitoring by aerobiology and phenology

Allergies caused by inhalant allergens, particularly pollens, are steadily increasing in urban centers. It is known that atmospheric pollution is strongly related to the inflammatory disease of the upper and lower airways but it is equally important in the development of sensitization towards pollens. Particulate Matter (PM), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) have an enhancement function on the persistence of pollens in the air, increasing the concentration and duration of pollinosis. It is therefore essential to use air quality control methods in urban centers to monitor the presence of pollen and fine dust that can drive the doctor and the patient to improve prevention, a step of primary importance in the treatment of allergies. Aerobiology and phenology are essential tools to monitor pollen production. The opportunity for the patients to use social media as information sources, including teletext, sms, mail and social networks, as well as a wide range of apps, allows to have reliable information on the air we breathe and therefore to better manage the methods of prevention at our disposal

Atlante del polline delle principali specie allergeniche d’Italia

manuale per il riconoscimento del polline allergenico aerodisperso e descrizione delle specie vegetali responsabili della sua produzion

Multivariate statistical forecasting modelling to predict Poaceae pollen critical concentrations by meteoclimatic data

Forecasting pollen concentrations in the short term is a topic of major importance in aerobiology. Forecasting models proposed in the literature are numerous and increasingly complex, but they fail in at least 25 % of cases and are not available for all botanical species. This work makes it possible to build a forecast model from meteorological data for estimating pollen concentration over a certain threshold of Poaceae, an allergenic family. In Italy, about 25 % of the population suffer from allergies, these in 80 % of cases being caused by airborne allergens, including taxa of agricultural interest such as Poaceae. The pollen dispersion in air is determined by both the phenological stage of plants and the meteorological conditions; the pollen presence varies according to the year, month and even the time of the day. There is a correlation between environmental factors, pollen concentrations and pollinosis. A partial least squares discriminant analysis approach was used in order to predict the presence of Poaceae pollen in the atmosphere with a time lag of 3, 5, 7 days, on the basis of a data set of 14 meteorological and pollen variables over a period of 14 years (1997–2010). The results show a high accuracy in predicting pollen critical concentrations, with values ranging from 85.4 to 88.0 %. This study is hopefully a positive first step in the use of a statistical approach that in the next future could have clinical applications