Abstract
Background The application of AIT in combination with biological agents has been found to increase both the safety and efficacy of the desensitization procedure in patients with food and insect venom allergy.
The aim of our study was to compare the effectiveness of allergen immunotherapy in patients with house dust mite (HDM) - driven asthma treated with and without omalizumab.
Materials and methods The study was a placebo-controlled, three-armed, randomized, parallel-group, multicentre trial that included 52 patients with HDM-driven asthma. Only patients with monosensitization to HDM were included. The study compared three patterns of therapy: omalizumab alone, house dust mite injection immunotherapy (HDM SCIT)+ omalizumab and SCIT alone. The main outcomes were evaluate the Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) score, number of asthma exacerbations and reduction in the daily dose of inhaled steroids during 12 months of observation.
Results All variants of therapy led to significantly improved ACQ scores and reducted of asthma exacerbations in all study groups after 12 months of treatment. A statistically significant reduction in the daily doses of ICS in the group with omalizumab alone (650±150 mcg versus 500±50 mcg for p=0.003) or HDM-SCIT+omalizumab (550±250 mcg versus 375±75 for p=0.001) was observed, favoring the latter group.
Conclusion The efficacy of AIT for house - dust mite driven asthma is significantly increased by the combination of allergen vaccine with omalizumab.
Footnotes
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- Received November 22, 2022.
- Accepted December 19, 2022.
- Copyright ©The authors 2023
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