Long-term Effects of Specific Allergen Immunotherapy Against House Dust Mites in Polysensitized Patients With Allergic Rhinitis

Allergy Asthma Immunol Res. 2014 Nov;6(6):535-540. English. Published online May 27, 2014.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4168/aair.2014.6.6.535

Abstract

Purpose Allergen-specific immunotherapy is the only currently available treatment to modify the natural history of allergic rhinitis (AR). If patients are polysensitized, it is difficult to identify the allergen causing the allergic symptoms. We evaluated the effectiveness of immunotherapy against house dust mites (HDMs) in AR patients polysensitized to both HDMs and seasonal allergens. Methods Thirty AR patients polysensitized to both HDMs and seasonal allergens (group A) and 30 patients sensitized to HDMs only (group B) were enrolled in this study. All subjects who received immunotherapy against HDMs for more than 2 years were evaluated by the multiple allergen simultaneous test (MAST) to determine the specific IgE level in luminescence units, total eosinophil counts in peripheral blood, serum total IgE, total nasal symptom scores, and the rhinoconjunctivitis quality of life questionnaire (RQLQ) before and after immunotherapy. Results There were no statistical differences in levels of total and specific IgE, or total eosinophil count between the two groups. The total nasal symptom scores, RQLQ and medication scores significantly decreased after immunotherapy in both groups, however no significant differences were noted between the two groups. Conclusions We determined that the primary causative allergen of AR in Seoul, Korea is perennial allergens, such as HDMs, rather than seasonal allergens. This study provides a reference for the selection of allergens to use in immunotherapy for polysensitized AR patients living in an urban environment.

Keywords: Immunotherapy, allergic rhinitis, house dust mite, polysensitization. Formats: Article PDF PubReader Figures + Tables References Copyright © 2014 The Korean Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Clinical Immunology • The Korean Academy of Pediatric Allergy and Respiratory Disease Sang Hoon Kim, Seung Youp Shin, Kun Hee Lee, Sung Wan Kim and Joong Saeng Cho Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea.  Correspondence to: Seung Youp Shin, MD, PhD, Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Kyung Hee Medical Center, 23 KyungHee-daero, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-702, Korea. TEL: +82-2-958-8474; FAX: +82-2-958-8470; Email: ssy6604@naver.com  Received October 18, 2013; Revised May 03, 2014; Accepted May 04, 2014. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.