Fuente: PubMed "pollen" Respir Med. 2026 Apr 17:108845. doi: 10.1016/j.rmed.2026.108845. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTOBJECTIVES: To characterize regional and age-dependent sensitization patterns in Chinese children in clinical referral settings with allergic asthma using Latent Class Analysis (LCA).DESIGN SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: This multicenter cross-sectional study (2019-2022) analyzed 580 children (aged 0-14 years) with diagnosed allergic asthma, strictly recruited from 13 tertiary referral centers across Northern and Southern China.METHODS: Standardized allergen-specific IgE (sIgE) testing for 18 allergens was performed using a unified platform. LCA was applied to identify distinct sensitization phenotypes, and age-related trajectories were examined.RESULTS: LCA identified four distinct patterns per region with significant distributional differences. Northern children were characterized by a High Pollen/Weed pattern (Class 3), accounting for 38.9% of the cohort, with Artemisia vulgaris (53.0%) and Leucanthemum vulgare (50.0%) as primary sensitizers. In contrast, Southern children were dominated by a High Dust Mite pattern (Class 3), comprising 63.3% of the population. The prevalence of Dermatophagoides farinae sensitization in the South was 72.0%, significantly higher than in the North (). Furthermore, the 3-6-year age group demonstrated the highest sensitization intensity across both regions.CONCLUSION: Sensitization phenotypes exhibit marked geographic heterogeneity, with plant pollens predominating in the North and dust mites in the South. While these findings support region-specific diagnostic strategies, they reflect patterns in a referral-center cohort and may imply a more severe clinical phenotype than the general population; thus, broader generalization should be approached with caution.PMID:42001972 | DOI:10.1016/j.rmed.2026.108845