Abstract
BACKGROUND: Although many patients with allergic rhinitis have symptoms due to sensitization to more than one kind of allergens, and mixed allergen extracts are widely used for immunotherapy, there are few published trials. OBJECTIVE: Our study aimed to evaluate the effect of multiple-allergen immunotherapy on improving the symptoms and quality of life of allergic rhinitis patients. METHODS: We performed a 1-year single-center observation study of subcutaneous immunotherapy using house dust mite extract (n = 12), weed pollen extract (n = 21), or mixed house dust mite/weed pollen extract (n = 11) in 44 allergic rhinitis patients. All the allergens responsible for the symptom of each patient were included in his immunotherapy. Symptom score, medication score, and quality of life of the patients were evaluated before and after 1-year immunotherapy. Quality of life was evaluated with the Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire. RESULTS: In all 3 groups receiving subcutaneous immunotherapy, significant improvement of symptom score, medication score, and quality of life was found vs. baseline at 1 year, irrespective of the allergen used. In the weed pollen season, the changes of quality of life questionnaire score after 1-year treatment were not significantly different between the weed pollen group (1.55 ± 1.24) and the mixed house dust mite/weed pollen group (1.14 ± 1.01). The same happened in the nonpollen seasons, during which dust mite immunotherapy (1.23 ± 1.63) and mixed immunotherapy (0.60 ± 0.47) did not show significantly different effect on the quality of life. CONCLUSION: The multiple-allergen immunotherapy might be effective in polysensitized allergic rhinitis patients, and could improve their quality of life. Our result did not show significant difference between the effects of multiple-allergen immunotherapy and mono-allergen immunotherapy.