3. Blazowski L. Anaphylactic shock because of sublingual immunotherapy overdose during third year of maintenance dose. Allergy. 2008;63:374. 4. de Groot H, Bijl A. Anaphylactic reaction after the first dose of sublingual immuno-therapy with grass pollen tablet. Allergy. 2009;64:963--4. 5. Dunsky EH, Goldstein MF, Dvorin DJ, Belecanech GA. Anaphylaxis to sublingual immunotherapy. Allergy. 2006;6...

BACKGROUND Grass pollen immunotherapy for allergic rhinitis is a disease-modifying treatment that results in long-term clinical tolerance lasting years after treatment discontinuation. Active treatment is associated with generation of inhibitory grass pollen-specific IgG antibodies capable of blocking allergen-IgE interactions. OBJECTIVES We sought to investigate the involvement of IgG-associ...

BACKGROUND The great majority (60-80 %) of patients consulting specialist physicians for allergic respiratory disease are polysensitized and thus may be potentially clinically polyallergic. However, management approaches to allergen immunotherapy (AIT) in polysensitized and polyallergic patients are not standardized. METHODS An international group of clinicians with in-depth expertise in AIT ...

Allergen-specific immunotherapy has been shown to be clinically effective in patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis and/or asthma. Patients who receive this therapy undergo a number of specific immunologic changes in response to the allergen being administered. These include a "blunting" of the seasonal rise of allergen-specific IgE as well as lowering baseline IgE levels, generation of an al...

Allergic rhinitis (AR) may be cured by allergen immunotherapy (AIT). However, patient characteristics for prescribing AIT are not well defined. This study aimed at evaluating the patient's profile to be a candidate for AIT in a cohort of patients suffering from AR, evaluated in 20 Italian Allergy or Ear, Nose, and Throat Centers. The study has been performed on 198 patients (98 men; mean age, 2...

The use and role of allergen immunotherapy (AIT) in asthma is still a matter of debate, and no definite recommendation about this is made in guidelines, both for the subcutaneous and sublingual routes. This is essentially due to the fact that most controlled randomised trials were not specifically designed for asthma, and that objective measures of pulmonary function were only occasionally cons...

Relevant allergens are major contributors to the safety and efficacy of allergenic extracts used in allergen immunotherapy (AIT). As such, they should be accurately quantified, as recommended by the 2008 European guidelines on allergen products. Until now, the quantification of relevant allergens was mainly performed by using immunoassays (e.g. ELISA) that relying upon specific antibodies. Alth...