Preseasonal intranasal immunotherapy in birch-alder allergic rhinitis. A double-blind study.
A double-blind, placebo-controlled study was carried out to test the clinical efficacy and safety of local nasal immunotherapy (LNIT) in powder form. Twenty-two patients suffering from allergic rhinitis strictly associated with early spring symptoms, with positive skin prick tests and RAST for birch-alder, all responders to a specific nasal provocation test (NPT), received randomly active or placebo treatment for 4 months. Immunotherapy consisted of administration of a set of capsules containing progressively increasing amounts of birch (Betula pendula) and speckled alder (Alnus incana) allergens in powder form with controlled granulometry. The active (birch-alder) and placebo (lactose) group completed the treatment according to a similar schedule. During the pollen season (March-April), the patients who took the active treatment reported less sneezing and rhinorrhea than the placebo group, on the basis of a symptoms score, and the differences were statistically significant; the need for drugs (terfenadine) was also significantly reduced. These findings agreed well with the results of specific NPT after the treatment; only patients in the active group had a higher threshold dose of nasal specific reactivity to birch-alder allergens than in tests before the LNIT.[1]References
- Preseasonal intranasal immunotherapy in birch-alder allergic rhinitis. A double-blind study. Cirla, A.M., Sforza, N., Roffi, G.P., Alessandrini, A., Stanizzi, R., Dorigo, N., Sala, E., Della Torre, F. Allergy (1996) [Pubmed]
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