A prospective Italian survey on the safety of subcutaneous immunotherapy for respiratory allergy.
Clin Exp Allergy
; 39(10): 1569-74, 2009 Oct.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-19486027
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Subcutaneous immunotherapy is effective for the treatment of respiratory allergy, and it is largely used in Italy, but no systematic safety assessment has been carried out so far.OBJECTIVE:
To assess prospectively the safety of injection immunotherapy in a multicentre, real-life survey.METHODS:
Eleven Italian allergy departments recorded the clinical characteristics of systemic reactions (SRs) due to immunotherapy. Vaccines were prescribed according to guidelines; only standardized depot extracts were used. SRs were graded according to the EAACI recommendations, and were classified as immediate or delayed.RESULTS:
One thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight patients (847 males, age range 5-71) received immunotherapy from eight different manufacturers, for a total of 2038 courses (300 patients received two extracts). A total of 60 785 injections were given over a mean immunotherapy duration of 3 years. Overall, 95 reactions were observed in 57 patients (3.28%), corresponding to 4.7% of the courses and 1.56/1000 injections. Twenty-five patients experienced more than one adverse event. There were 34 grade 2, 60 grade 3 and one grade 4 reactions and no fatality. SRs occurred more frequently in patients with asthma than in patients with rhinitis alone (4.1% vs. 1.1%), and were equally distributed between the build-up and the maintenance phase. Ragweed and grass extracts caused significantly more side effects than other allergens.CONCLUSION:
In this large prospective study, the rate of SRs was low, thus confirming that injection immunotherapy has an acceptable risk/benefit ratio when prescribed and carried out according to recommendations.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Asma
/
Vacinas
/
Imunoterapia
Tipo de estudo:
Clinical_trials
/
Guideline
/
Observational_studies
/
Qualitative_research
Limite:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Aged
/
Child
/
Child, preschool
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
País/Região como assunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Clin Exp Allergy
Assunto da revista:
ALERGIA E IMUNOLOGIA
Ano de publicação:
2009
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Itália