Sublingual Immunotherapy Improves Dust Mite Allergy
-
Sublingual immunotherapy lengthened the time to first moderate or severe exacerbation during a period of corticosteroid reduction among patients with house dust mite–related asthma. The study reported an estimated absolute reduction at 6 months of 9 to 10 percentage points, mainly as a result of the mitigation of moderate exacerbations. Sensitization to dust mite allergen is present in as many as 50% of patients with asthma, and exposure to it has been linked to asthma severity.
-
@poli During the final 6 months of the study, corticosteroids were reduced by 50% for 3 months and then withdrawn for 3 months. Patients recorded symptoms, medication use, and lung function twice a day in electronic diaries. Evaluating efficacy during this period in the 693 patients completing the study, the researchers note that both active doses significantly reduced the odds of moderate or severe asthma exacerbation, which was the primary endpoint, compared with placebo. Specifically, the hazard ratios were 0.72 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.52 - 0.99) for the 6 SQ-HDM group (P = .045) and 0.69 (95% CI, 0.50 - 0.96) for the 12 SQ-HDM group (P = .03). The absolute risk differences in the intervention groups vs in the placebo group were 0.09 (95% CI, 0.01 - 0.15) for the 6 SQ-HDM group and 0.10 (95% CI, 0.02 - 0.16) for the 12 SQ-HDM group. No significant difference was observed between the active groups (hazard ratio, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.68 - 1.37; P = .84).