Abstract
The number of patients with Japanese cedar pollinosis is increasing yearly. Prophylactic treatment with leukotriene receptor antagonist is recommended in the Practical Guidelines for the Management of Allergic Rhinitis in Japan (PG-MARJ). We evaluated the clinical prophylactic efficacy of montelukast in patients with Japanese cedar pollinosis in 2012.
The subjects consisted of 59 patients with cedar pollinosis treated at the Departments of Otolaryngology, Tokyo Medical University Hospital and Kosei Hospital, between January and April 2012. The prophylactic treatment group consisted of 36 patients who underwent prophylactic treatment with montelukast prior to cedar pollen scattering, and the after scattering treatment group consisted of 23 patients who underwent the treatment with montelukast after cedar pollen scattering. We evaluated the nasal and eye symptom scores and the daytime and nighttime nasal symptoms using symptom diaries. We also evaluated the daytime sleepiness score by the Japanese version of The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (JESS), and the patients' QOL score by the Japanese Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire (JRQLQ).
The nasal, eye, daytime nasal, and nighttime nasal symptom scores and the JESS scores were well controlled in the prophylactic treatment group as compared with that in the after scattering treatment group. The differences in some of the scores were significant. These findings suggest that prophylactic treatment with montelukast contributes to improvement of the patients' symptoms and QOL during the pollen season in Japanese cedar pollinosis patients.
