[Current trends in the specific immunotherapy for allergic syndromes due to Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus]

Abstract

House dust mites of the species Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus are among the most prevalent perennial allergens. Measurement of allergen exposure is so crucial to establish the natural history of the allergic reaction. The most common clinical manifestations induced by Dermatophagoides are perennial asthma and perennial rhinitis. Recently there are a number of studies indicating that a high degree of exposure to house dust mites may represent a risk factor for severe disease in patients with atopic dermatitis. The diagnosis was performed by in vivo and in vitro tests. Nowadays the treatments regard allergen eradication and specific immunotherapy. Mite specific immunotherapy is only effective under optimal conditions, including an appropriate selection of patients and the use of high-quality standardized extracts. The specific immunotherapy received by subcutaneous injection is the one mostly used until now and the results were really satisfactory, even if its evaluation has been made on clinical data or on bronchial challenges. Immunologic changes were found only when using same extracts. The incidence of systemic reactions during the immunotherapy was low. Recently local immunotherapy was used and it has been shown to be significant by safety, but further clinical investigations are needed to clarify the clinical efficacy in direct comparison with traditional parenteral immunotherapy.