Objective: To evaluate the effect of allergen specific immunotherapy (SIT) in patients with allergic rhinitis and asthma. METHOD A total of 68 patients with allergic rhinitis and asthma sensitized to dust mite were recruited into the study. They were randomly divided into two groups: SIT group n = 34 and symptomatic therapy (ST) group: n = 34. Patients in ST group received medication to treat, the symptoms, patients in SIT group received medication and 3 years of standardized allergen vaccine therapy. Evaluation index of therapy includes: rhinitis symptoms score, asthma symptoms score, drug score, skin prick test, serum specificity IgE (sIgE) , peripheral eosinophil (Eos) counting, lung function. The new sensitinogen rate was also assessed.
Result: Clinical symptom scores, drug scores, lung function, blood eosinophil numbers and skin test result were all improved significantly after 3-year treatment in SIT group compared to those in ST group (P < 0.01). Although the level of serum slgE was decreased,there exited no statistic diferences between two groups. Only 8.8% patients have the new sensitization in SIT group, and 52.9% in ST group. There were no serious adverse reactions in treatment process.
Conclusion: SIT for patients with AR and asthma can obtain excellent clinical efficacy.