Specific immunotherapy in atopic dermatitis--Four-year treatment in different age and airborne allergy type subgroups

Abstract

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common inflammatory disease involving the skin and frequently other organs and systems such as respiratory system. The recently recognized atopic nature of the skin inflammation in AD has raised a growing interest in the treatment with allergen-specific immunotherapy (SIT). In this study, the efficacy of SIT was evaluated in a group of 37 AD patients aged 5-44 years: 14 allergic to house dust mites (HDM), 17 to grass pollen allergens, and 6 allergic to grass and mugwort pollen allergens. IgE-mediated airborne allergy was well documented in all cases. SIT was performed with Novo Helisen Depot allergy vaccines of appropriate composition. Control group included 29 patients with AD and confirmed IgE-mediated airborne allergy to analogous allergens: HDM, 14 patients; grass pollen allergens, 11 patients; and grass and mugwort pollen allergens, 4 patients. Conventional methods of AD treatment were used in the control group. Clinical evaluation of patients was performed with W-AZS index after 12, 24, 36 and 48 months of therapy. SIT was found to be an efficacious and safe method of treatment for selected patients with AD and IgE-mediated airborne allergy. The efficacy of this therapeutic method was significantly higher than that recorded by conventional methods used in the control group in all 3 age subgroups and all 3 types of airborne allergy (HDM, grass pollen, and grass and mugwort pollen). It is concluded that SIT may be highly promising method of controlling skin inflammation in AD with the potential to prevent the development of AD into respiratory allergy.