2017 Volume 120 Issue 6 Pages 833-840
We studied the clinical efficacy during the Cypress season by allergen-specific sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) of cedar pollen.
Methods: The subjects were 180 patients with combined cedar and cypress pollinosis treated by SLIT with cedar pollen. There were 105 males and 75 females, with a mean age of the subjects of 37.0 ± 17.0 years. The clinical efficacy of the SLIT was studied in the moderate cedar- and cypress- pollen-scattering year of 2016. The scores on the quality of life and face scale (FS) of the Japanese rhino-conjunctivitis QOL questionnaire (JRQLQ No. 1) and the total nasal symptom-medication score (TNSMS) were assessed by the patients during both the cedar pollen and cypress pollen seasons. A post-seasonal survey of the efficacy of SLIT was performed after each of the cedar pollen and cypress pollen seasons.
Results: According to the survey, in the patients who had not yet been started on the SLIT, the symptoms were more severe during the cedar pollen season than during the cypress pollen season. The percentages of patients in whom the SLIT was judged to be effective by the patients themselves was 68.7% during the cedar pollen season, and 38.7% during the cypress pollen season. When the patients compared the efficacy of the SLIT between the two pollen seasons, 42.2% answered that their symptoms were equivalent during both seasons, and 54.9% said that the symptoms became worse in the cypress pollen season. There were no differences in the average scores on each item examined between the two pollen seasons, the changes in the scores varied among individual cases. The TNSMS became worse by 1 point in 27.2% of all cases. Of the group of patients with a FS score of 1 point during the cedar pollen season, which is considered as indicative of the treatment efficacy, 43.3% showed worsening of the FS score during the cypress pollen season. In the group of patients who indicated that their symptoms were similar during both the cedar and cypress pollen seasons before the SLIT, 30.4% showed worsening of the TSNMS during the cypress pollen season. However, 8 of the 30 (26.7%) patients who indicated that their symptoms were more severe during the cypress pollen season than during the cedar pollen season before the SLIT showed improved scores in the cypress pollen season after the start of the SLIT.
Conclusion: This result revealed both cases where SLIT was effective and those where it was insufficiently effective during the cypress pollen season, even among cases where the therapy was effective during the cedar pollen season.
