Allergic rhinitis according to evidence-based medicine

Allergic rhinitis is one of the most common chronic diseases, affecting from 20 to 30% of adult population and 40% of children [8, 19]. In the past decades, the incidence of allergic rhinitis has been growing all over the world. 9% of the European population and 8.8 -16% of the U.S. population suffer from the pathology [1, 4]. Widespread comorbid conditions of allergic rhinitis which exacerbate the clinical pattern are asthma, sinusitis, otitis media [20, 24]. The disease is characterized by symptoms of different intensity which deteriorate the quality of life, everyday activity and productivity, even when treatment is quite effective [3, 14]. The main criteria in diagnosis of allergic rhinitis are medical history, clinical manifestations, positive skin tests and allergen-specific antibodies in blood serum.