Sublingual immunotherapy with a carbamylated monomeric allergoidin cat-allergic patients suffering from rhinoconjunctivitis and/or allergic asthma. A multicenter, cross-sectional survey

Background

In this cross-sectional survey our purpose is to evaluate the clinical outcome and safety of allergoid sublingual immunotherapy in cat-allergic patients suffering from rhinoconjunctivitis and / or asthma.

Methods

All patients were drawn anonymously from twenty-one practices across Germany. For this survey, a questionnaire was designed to standardize the patient interviews that were performed by the investigators. Patients were prescribed monomeric allergoid sublingual tablets for an initial up-dosing therapy and afterwards for maintenance therapy. Primary endpoints were improvement of symptoms, medications score and safety during therapy with monomeric allergoids.

Results

In total, 70 patients completed the questionnaire. Of 70 patients, 35.7% were males and 64.3% females. Regarding rhinitis symptoms, almost thirty percent (29.1%) of the patients had become symptom-free during the first year of therapy. This number increased to 52.8% of the remaining patients in the second year, and to 80% of the remaining patients in the third year of therapy. Similar results were valid for conjunctivitis with 35.6%, 55.2% and 72.7% from the first to the third year of therapy. For asthmatic patients, 35.1% had become symptom-free during the first year, 58.3% during the second year, and 70% during the third year of therapy. At baseline, usage of asthmatic medication was 1.33 ± 1..48 (mean ± SD) relative to 0.68 ± 1.23 (mean ± SD) at the time of the questionnaire conduct, with p ≤ 0.05. For anti-allergic medication, baseline medication score was 1.01 ± 1.37 (mean ± SD) relative to 0.45 ± 0.87 (mean ± SD), with p ≤ 0.001. Regarding safety, no events of death, no anaphylactic reactions, no serious adverse events, and no systemic adverse reactions occurred. Only seven local adverse reactions were reported in 7 patients. Besides the major endpoints, secondary endpoints such as patients’ improvement of quality of life, patients’ compliance, patients’ satisfaction, and trust in the therapy were remarkably enhanced.

Conclusions

Monomeric allergoid sublingual tablets show clinical advantages in a practice environment and under real-life setting conditions. The results of other studies could be reinforced by the results of our study, with significant reduction in medication score, symptom improvement, and a considerable safety outcome. It can be claimed that a sublingual monomeric tablet therapy is safe and well tolerated and significantly reduces rhinitis symptoms in cat-allergic patients.