If this is not your name, click here.
| | If this is not your name, click here. | | |
| | Contact Us | Order Now | Journals | Bookstore | Register a colleague | | |
| |  No Influence of Treatment- and Sting-Related Factors on Risk of Re-Sting Reaction in Treated Patients With Yellow Jacket Allergy: Presented at EAACI By Judith Moser, MD WARSAW, Poland -- June 9, 2009 -- In patients who underwent a venom immunotherapy (VIT) for a yellow jacket allergy the risk of an allergic reaction upon a re-sting does not significantly depend on factors like the time span after treatment cessation or the index sting severity. These are the results of a study presented here on June 8 at the 28th Congress of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI). Hanneke Oude Elberink, MD, Department of Allergology, University Medical Center of Groningen, the Netherlands, presented the analysis here at an oral presentation on June 8. "We were interested in establishing the factors which influence the efficacy of VIT," Dr. Oude Elberink explained. Patients who had shown a systemic reaction to a wasp or bee sting and who had received VIT from 1985 to 2007 were included. The duration of the VIT ranged from 2 to 6 years. The investigators sent questionnaires to 898 patients, 499 (55.6%) of whom returned them. Of these responders, 253 (50.7%) had experienced re-stings after the end of their VIT. Thirty-eight of those patients (15.0%) reported displaying a systemic reaction to the sting, whereas 215 were nonreactors. "The reactors and the nonreactors were similar in terms of age and sex," said Dr. Oude Elberink. Nonresponders (patients who had not returned their questionnaires) were called by the investigators and questioned on the phone. It turned out that in terms of age, duration of VIT, re-sting frequency, and frequency of re-sting reactions, they were comparable to the responders. Several factors were evaluated for their influence on the risk of a re-sting reaction. When comparing the severity of the index sting and the re-sting reaction, it could be shown that most patients suffered the same (47.4%) or a less severe reaction (47.4%). Only 2 patients (5.4%) experienced a more severe reaction upon being stung again. In patients who had experienced grade 3 (pulmonary symptoms, dizziness, palpitations) or grade 4 (hypotension) reactions, a trend to a higher re-sting reaction risk was found. Concerning the duration of the VIT, there was a nonsignificant trend to fewer reactions in patients who had been treated for longer periods of time (14.3% after treatment for 4.6 to 5.5 years compared with 20.9% after treatment for 3.0 to 3.4 years). The time interval after stopping VIT did not differ significantly in patients with or without a re-sting reaction (mean 58.4 vs 53.8 months). Regarding the sting frequency, a higher reaction rate was seen in patients who were stung more often. "However, this was not statistically significant," Dr. Oude Elberink said. [Presentation Title: Efficacy of Venom Immunotherapy for Yellow Jacket Allergy. Abstract 82]
|
