Asthma, Rhinitis, Other Respiratory DiseasesPollen immunotherapy reduces the development of asthma in children with seasonal rhinoconjunctivitis (the PAT-study)☆
Section snippets
Patients
A total of 208 children aged 6 to 14 years from European 6 pediatric centers were included in the study; of these, 205 were randomized after a baseline season (season 0; Table I).
Empty Cell All included No asthma Asthma* No. of patients 208 (205)† 163 42 Age (y): mean (range) 10.7 (6-15) 10.7 (6-15) 10.6 (6-14) Sex: male/female 138/70 (137/68)† 108/55 29/13 Years with hay fever: mean (range) 4.7 (1-15)‡ 4.6 (1-15)‡ 4.9 (1-9)‡ N = 171 N = 137 N = 34 Methacholine PC20: mean (range) 10.8
Results
Forty-three patients were allergic to birch, 124 were allergic to grass, and 41 were allergic to both birch and grass. Before SIT, despite negative histories of asthma with need of daily medication at screening, 40 children (20%) were identified as having mild asthma. These mild seasonal asthmatic symptoms would probably not even now have been identified if the patients had not been enrolled in the study. According to the skin prick test results, the average number of sensitivities other than
Discussion
This study shows that SIT in children with rhinoconjunctivitis without asthma reduced the risk for later development of asthma. Because SIT for hay fever can prevent allergic asthma, it appears that allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and allergic asthma are different manifestations of the same disease. Children with hay fever but without asthma with need of daily medication were selected for the study. When they were initially challenged with methacholine during seasonal exposure, we found a very
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Jannik Godt, MSc, for excellent and very qualified statistical support and to ALK-Abelló for sponsoring this study.
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Reprint requests: Christian Möller, MD, PhD, Department of Paediatrics, S-901 85 Umeå, Sweden.