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Review
. 2022 Aug 10;20(1):9.
doi: 10.1186/s12948-022-00176-x.

Current treatment strategies for seasonal allergic rhinitis: where are we heading?

Erminia Ridolo  1 , Cristoforo Incorvaia  2 , Francesco Pucciarini  2 , Elena Makri  3 , Giovanni Paoletti  4   5 , Giorgio Walter Canonica  4   5
Affiliations
Review

Current treatment strategies for seasonal allergic rhinitis: where are we heading?

Erminia Ridolo et al. Clin Mol Allergy. .

Abstract

Introduction: Allergic rhinitis (AR) is very commonly caused by pollens. The symptoms of AR consist of sneezing, nasal congestion, rhinorrhea, nasal itching and airflow obstruction. The diagnosis has long been based on clinical history, skin prick tests and in vitro measurement of specific IgE, but the innovative approach of precision medicine has made diagnostic tools of much greater accuracy available.

Areas covered: This review covers the advances in the treatment of seasonal AR concerning the drugs to be used according to the grade of disease and the characteristics of the patients, and the role of allergen immunotherapy (AIT), which is the only treatment capable of acting, in addition to the symptoms, on the cause of AR and therefore to modify its natural history.

Expert opinion: Drug treatment of AR include a large number of agents, the choice of which depends on the severity of the disease. AIT has high evidence of efficacy demonstrated by meta-analyses, and further improvement is currently apparent, as for diagnosis, applying the means of precision medicine. However, when AIT is performed in current practice, without the strict rules of controlled trials, long-term low adherence is a major problem to be solved.

Keywords: Allergen immunotherapy; Personalized medicine; Seasonal allergic rhinitis; Symptomatic drugs; Treatment strategy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Algorithm of treatment strategies for allergic rhinitis The figure shows how the treatment can be only symptomatic or even disease-modifying through a tailor treatment on the patient, once obtained the etiological diagnosis of seasonal rhinitis
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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