Effect of regular intravenous immunoglobulin therapy on prevention of pneumonia in patients with common variable immunodeficiency.
OBJECTIVE
Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is a primary immunodeficiency disorder, which presents with hypogammaglobulinemia and recurrent bacterial infections. Patients with CVID have frequent and severe episodes of pneumonia. The standard intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG) therapy has led to the reduction of pulmonary infections in these patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of IVIG treatment in reducing the incidence of pneumonia in patients with CVID.


METHODS
Twenty six Iranian patients with CVID whose diseases had been diagnosed at the Children Medical Center and had received regular IVIG for at least 9 months were selected. The numbers of episodes of pneumonia and hospital admissions were documented before and during treatment with IVIG.


RESULTS
Of 26 patients with CVID, 80.5% had experienced pneumonia at least once before receiving immunoglobulin and 88.5% required hospital admission. After starting treatment with IVIG (mean treatment period, 41.5 +/- 35.4 months), the annual incidence of pneumonia significantly decreased from 80.5% to 34.6% (p=0.0017), and the rate of hospitalization from 88.5% to 46% (p=0.0025) . The incidence of pneumonia requiring treatment or hospitalization fell from 3.4 to 0.7 per year (p<0.0005).


CONCLUSIONS
Regular IVIG therapy can significantly reduce the incidence of pneumonia and hospital admission due to infections in patients with CVID.
Pourpak
Zahra
Z
Department of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Children Medical Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran. zpourpak@hbi.ir
Aghamohammadi
Asghar
A
Sedighipour
Leyla
L
Farhoudi
Abolhasan
A
Movahedi
Masoud
M
Gharagozlou
Mohammad
M
Chavoshzadeh
Zahra
Z
Jadid
Leyla
L
Rezaei
Nima
N
Moin
Mostafa
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017074:Common Variable Immunodeficiency / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D016756:Immunoglobulins, Intravenous / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D007155:Immunologic Factors / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000517:prevention & control*
D016756:Immunoglobulins, Intravenous; D007155:Immunologic Factors