Title

The efficacy assessment of a self-administered immunotherapy protocol

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-1-2016

Abstract

Background: We previously reported the safety of a selfadministered subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) protocol. Here we report the results of the retrospective efficacy trial of the United Allergy Service (UAS) self-administered SCIT protocol. We hypothesized that by utilizing a slow SCIT buildup phase, designed to aain recommended allergen concentrations on a cumulative basis, efficacious outcomes and clinical relevance would be achieved. Methods: We enrolled 60 SCIT patients and 56 control patients. The study contrasted baseline and treatment period combined symptom plus medication scores (CSMS) as the primary outcome measure and rhinoconjunctivitis quality of life questionnaire (RQLQ) scores as the secondary study outcome measure. Changes in pollen counts were also examined with regard to effects on these efficacy parameters. Results: The treatment group showed significantly improved CSMS (standardized mean difference [SMD]: −1.57; 95% confidence interval [CI], −1.97 to −1.18; p < 0.001) and RQLQ (SMD: −0.91; 95% CI, −1.23 to −0.59; p < 0.001). These treatment group outcome measures were respectively improved by 33% and 29% compared to baseline and greater than 40% in comparison to the control group (p < 0.0001). Significant results were also shown when examining these outcome measures with regards to either monotherapy or poly-allergen SCIT. Furthermore, a comparison to recent meta-analyses of SCIT studies showed equivalent efficacy and clinical relevance. Assessment of pollen counts during the baseline and treatment periods further corroborated the efficacy of the UAS SCIT protocol. Conclusion: These efficacy results, and our previous safety results, show that a carefully designed and implemented self-administered SCIT protocol is efficacious and safe. C 2015 The Authors International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc., on behalf of ARS-AAOA, LLC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes

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