Clinical epidemiology of anaphylaxis

Clinical epidemiology of anaphylaxis Anaphylaxis is a severe and life-threatening allergic reaction. Epidemiologic data on anaphylaxis needs to be differentiated between types of elicitors. Food items are the most frequent agents in childhood, where insect venom and drug-induced anaphylaxis is more common in adults. Prevalence and incidence figures need to be interpreted cautiously, since there is no ubiquitous case definition and even ICD coding is not used uniformly. Even though, annual incidence was recently estimated at 6 - 10 per 100.000 inhabitants. There is speculation on the rise of anaphylaxis, but this has not been confirmed yet. Risk factors for the development of anaphylaxis are of special importance. Allergic asthma has been established as a risk factor, but age, drugs and other lifestyle factors might play a role as well. In summary, the growing body of epidemiologic data on anaphylaxis worldwide gives the impression of rising disease frequencies. The anaphylaxis registry allows for the continuous and unified tracking of severe anaphylaxis cases and serves as an important basis to investigate current management and to identify new allergens in time.