Effect of immunotherapy with purified pollen allergens

    SUN Xiuª²Zhen1, MI Lieª²Han2, LIU Yun1, FENG Xiangª²Li1, YANG Kunª²Zheng3

    1Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Second Affiliated Hospital, Medical College, Xi¬ðan Jiaotong University, 2Respiratory Department, Shannxi Traditional Chinese Hospital, 3Respiratory Department, Beifang Hospital, Xi¬ðan 710004, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To study the effect of specific immunotherapy (SIT) with purified pollen allergens (caraway, humulus and chenopodium) on asthmatic patients. METHODS: The pollen allergens were purified by gelatin filtration. One hundred and two patients with seasonal asthma allergic to caraway, humulus or chenopodium pollen were divided randomly into 2 groups: observation group (group A) and control group (group B) and the 2 groups were given purified pollen allergens (PPA) and crude pollen allergens (CPA) respectively before the allergic season. The course was 3 months. The laboratory observation included the wheals¬ð diameter of ID, specific IgE (sIgE) and mean A value before and after SIT. RESULTS: The general effective rate of SIT with purified allergens in group A was 90% (47/52) and that with crude allergens in group B was 78% (39/50). The former was significantly higher than the latter (P<0.05). Only 3 patients in group A had slight sideª²effects after SIT and 13 patients (26%) in group B had sideª²effects. A significant decrease in the diameter of skin wheal and sIgE (P<0.01) was observed after SIT in both groups and the decrease was more significant in group A than in group B (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The effective rates of SIT with both PPA and CPA are satisfactory. But SIT with PPA is more effective and safer than that with CPA. ......