1998 Volume 47 Issue 4 Pages 426-433
Clustered immunotherapy (C-IT) using house-dust (HD) antigen was performed in eight HD-mite-sensitive adult bronchial asthmatics. Six mg of mequitazine was given 2 hours befofe each visit. For each visit, injections of antigen were performed four times with an hour interval. Either 0.1 ml of 10-fold concentration of the HD or a final dose at the end of the fifth week was determined as a maintenance dose. All cases have reached to ten-fold concentration of the HD antigen within 5 weeks and been able to introduce maintenance therapy without any systemic reaction. Following C-IT, a rapid increase in morning peak expiratory flow rate was observed which is follwed by decrease in clinical scores. Furthermore, an increase in mite-specific I G4 antibody and a decrease in peripheral blood eosinophils were observed 16 weeks following C-IT. Thses results suggest that C-IT using HD antigen can be performed safely and securely and provides rapid immunological responses as well as clinical benefit in HD-mite-sensitive adult asthmatics.
