Non-grass pollen respiratory allergies in Italy and efficacy ofspecific sublingual immunotherapy drops: the rainbow trial;a multicentre, 3-year prospective, observational studyM Milani 1 , S Pecora 1 , Rainbow Study <strong>Group</strong> 21Medical Department, <strong>ALK</strong>, Lainate, Italy; 2 ItalySublingual Immunotherapy DropsBackgroundIn a multicentre, prospective, observational trial, weevaluated disease severity in terms of symptoms and useof symptomatic medications in subjects with tree, cypress,olive, ragweed or parietaria allergies. We also evaluatedthe efficacy of a 2-year consecutive, specific, sublingualimmunotherapy treatment.MethodPatients suffering from respiratory allergies(rhinoconjunctivitis with or without mild to moderateasthma) due to 1 of the 5 described allergens were enrolledin a multicentre study. During the pollen seasons for eachallergen, nose and eye symptoms (runny nose, blockednose, sneezing and itchy nose; eye symptoms) andmedication scores (SS and MS) were evaluated. Globalscore (GS) was calculated as the sum of SS and MS. Inpatients with asthma, asthma symptom score (cough,dyspnea, wheezing and exercise induced asthma) wasalso calculated. A total of 162 patients were enrolled at 14allergy clinics. The patients were treated with the relevantspecific sublingual immunotherapy drops (SLITone ® , <strong>ALK</strong>,Denmark) for 2 consecutive pollen seasons.ResultAt baseline, prevalence of allergies was the following: tree18% (30 patients), ragweed 14% (23 patients), olive 7%(11 patients), cypress 7% (12 patients) and parietaria53% (86 patients). At baseline, asthma symptomswere observed in 65 patients (40%). Asthma was morecommon in poly-sensitised subjects in comparison withmono-sensitised subjects (51% vs. 30%). Accordingto the allergen type, asthma was present in 47% of theparietaria allergic patients, in 45% of the olive allergicsubjects, in 38% of the ragweed allergic patients, in 26%of the tree allergic patients and only in 9% of the cypressallergic subjects. In parietaria, olive and ragweed allergicpatients, the frequency of asthma was statisticallysignificant (p=0.0055) higher in comparison with othergroups. At baseline, GS mean (±SD) in the whole populationwas 17(±7). The GS during the following 2 consecutiveseasons with SLIT drop treatment decreased significantly(p=0.0001) to 9 (±5) and to 7 (±5), respectively (areduction of 59% in comparison with baseline). The meanasthma symptom score decreased significantly from abaseline value of 2.7 to 0.3 at the end of the observationperiod.ConclusionIn this population, parietaria, olive and ragweed allergiesare associated with a more severe clinical phenotype.A 2-year SLIT drop treatment was associated with asignificant reduction in SS, MS, GS and asthma score.38Abstract number: 756. Session date and time: Sunday 12 June, 12.00 - 13.30Session: Poster session – Clinical documentation of studies of efficacy and safety of IT. Session room: Rumeli Hall
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