[Effect of vacuum cleaning of room floors and bed clothes of patients on house dust mites counts and clinical scores of atopic dermatitis. A double blind control trial]

Abstract

By a randomized double blind control trial we studied the effect of vacuum cleaning of room floors, mattresses and quilts for twelve months on clinical symptoms and laboratory data of atopic dermatitis patients. All patients used the identical new vacuum cleaners. Thirty patients (3-12 years of age) with relatively stable skin conditions were randomly allocated to either of the following two groups. In the monitor group we visited patient's home every three weeks and mite specialists cleaned drastically the room floors, mattresses and quilts and the patient continued to clean in the same way in-between. In the control group we visited similarly but the cleaning was made insufficiently which was also followed by the patient. But, at 2 occasions (the first and the last visits), cleaning was made drastically also in the control group. Thus the mite numbers were counted precisely at the start and the end of the experiment both in the monitor and control groups. Each patient was seen every six weeks by the same doctor and estimated of his symptoms using our unique scoring system (Fig. 1). At the start and the end of the study, total IgE and specific IgE antibodies to house dust mites in the serum were evaluated. The monitor group showed a tendency to count smaller number of mites than the control group after a year, when there was a significant difference only in quilts. However, a statistically significant decrease in the mite counts was observed only in room floors and not in mattresses and quilts both in the monitor and control groups (Fig. 2). Clinical scores after a year significantly improved only in the monitor group and not in the control group (Fig. 3). Serum IgE value and specific antibody titer to house dust mites were not changed significantly after the trial in both groups. As a conclusion, vacuum cleaning of the patient's room improved the clinical symptoms of atopic dermatitis but this could not be related to the reduction of house dust mite number.