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| |  Grass Allergen Immunotherapy Tablet Can Reduce Need for Rescue Medication and Shorten Allergy Season: Presented at ACAAI By Sandra Ripley Distelhorst SEATTLE, Wash -- November 10, 2008 -- Use of allergy immunotherapy tablets (AITs) can reduce symptoms of allergic rhinitis and can shorten the allergy season on average by 9 days, according to research presented here at the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Conference. Investigator Waltraud Emminger, MD, University of Vienna Medical School, Vienna, Austria, presented the results here on November 9. Dr. Emminger discussed the results of a post hoc analysis of data from 634 patients who participated in the first year of a 3-year placebo-controlled trial examining the efficacy of grass AIT. For the study, treatment was initiated 16 weeks prior to the expected start of the grass pollen season. Outcomes were time to first-use of rescue medication and total symptom score (TSS) calculated as reported by patients in a daily electronic diary starting on the first day of the pollen season. Symptoms, including runny nose, blocked nose, sneezing, itchy nose, gritty feeling, or red itchy or watery eyes, were graded on a scale of 0 (no symptom) to 3 (3 = severe symptom). Use of rescue medication was introduced depending on the persistence and severity of symptoms and recorded as stepwise rescue medication, starting with desloratadine, with nasal budesonide spray as step 2, and prednisone as the final therapy. Dr. Emminger reported that patients who received grass AIT had significantly greater delay in their first allergic response as indicated by median time to first use of desloratadine or TSS of 4 or greater (7 vs 4 days; P = .015). Time to first use of budesonide was also delayed in the grass AIT group (25 vs 11 days) and fewer patients in the grass AIT group required step 2 medication (34.9% vs 52.2%) compared with the placebo group (P < .0001). Median time to TSS of 8 or greater was 22 days in the grass AIT group and 13 days in the placebo group, which corresponds with a median delay to the start of symptoms of 9 days with grass AIT compared with placebo (P < .0001). With the average pollen season being 58.7 days, this delay results in a 15.3% reduction to the duration of the pollen season for patients treated with grass AIT, Dr. Emminger said. "A delay in symptoms can be a big plus for some patients, such as students facing exams during the pollen season," he concluded.
[Presentation title: Effect of Single Allergen Immunotherapy Tablet on the Time to First Rhinoconjunctivitis Symptom and Time to First Use of Rescue Medication in Patients With Allergic Rhinitis. Abstract 21]
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