Desensitization at the first stage of IGE-mediated response as hay fever prophylaxis

The aim of our work was to assess the prophylactic aspects of desensitization at the first stage of IgE-mediated response to grass pollen antigens (GPA). Forty six patients aged 10-45 (Me = 20.45) years (group I) and 50 patients aged 11-45 (Me = 19.17) years (group II) were included in to the study. All of them: 1) suffered from allergic rhinitis due to house dust (HD), feathers (F), weed (W) or tree (T) pollen, 2) had also some other allergic diseases, 3) had positive family history of allergic disorders, 4) had reproducible, strongly positive skin reaction of type I to GPA, but 5) did not show any clinical symptoms of hypersensitivity to GPA. Specific immunotherapy with HD, F, W, and T aqueous extracts was administered to both groups for at least 3 successive years, while parallel desensitization with GPA aqueous extract was carried out in group I, only. The symptoms of grass pollinosis were searcher for and the effects of immunotherapy were evaluated in all the patients over the period of at least 5 successive years after the complete course of vaccines administration. Clinical signs of hypersensitivity to GPA became evident in 6 patients (13.04%) of group I and in 27 patients (54.00%) of group II (p less than 0.001). Thus the desensitization at the first stage of IgE-mediated response to GPA effectively prevented development of the symptomatic hay fever. However, the disease revealed itself in few cases still much later and its course was much milder than in people who were not subjected to such a preventive desensitization.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)