Short report

The effect of multiple allergen immunotherapy on exhaled nitric oxide in adults with allergic rhinitis

Michele Columbo, Bruce Wong, Reynold A Panettieri and Albert S Rohr

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Allergy, Asthma & Clinical Immunology 2013, 9:31 doi:10.1186/1710-1492-9-31

Published: 19 August 2013

Abstract (provisional)

Background

There is a lack of objective measures of the clinical efficacy of allergen immunotherapy which relies on patients' perception about the effect of this treatment. We studied whether the fraction of exhaled nitric oxide is affected by multiple allergen immunotherapy in polysensitized adult subjects with allergic rhinitis. We also looked for associations between exhaled nitric oxide and subjects' demographics, symptom scores, and pulmonary function tests.

Methods

Twenty adult, polysensitized subjects with seasonal and perennial allergic rhinitis who chose to undergo allergen immunotherapy were enrolled. They were evaluated at baseline, and 4, 8, 12, 24, and 52 weeks later. Exhaled nitric oxide was reported as the mean of triplicate determinations.

Findings 

Our results indicate that multiple allergen immunotherapy did not affect exhaled nitric oxide levels and such levels did not correlate with subjects' demographics and pulmonary function tests. However, exhaled nitric oxide was associated with rhinoconjuctivitis and asthma symptom scores at the end of the study.

Conclusions

In polysensitized adult subjects with allergic rhinitis, exhaled nitric oxide levels are unaffected by multiple allergen immunotherapy.

The complete article is available as a provisional PDF. The fully formatted PDF and HTML versions are in production.