title: Clinical efficacy of sublingual immunotherapy in pediatric patients with allergic rhinitis sensitized to house dust mites: comparison to adult patients.
abstract: CONCLUSIONS
  Sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) with house dust mite (HDM) extracts in school-age children and adolescents seems to be as effective as in adults. SLIT could be recommended as a therapeutic modality in pediatric allergic rhinitis (AR) patients sensitized to HDMs.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the efficacy of HDM SLIT in pediatric patients with AR.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy-six patients treated with HDM SLIT for at least 1 year between November 2007 and February 2010 were enrolled in this study. A young age group (n = 54) between 6 and 18 years old was compared with an adult group (n = 22). Standardized extract of HDM (Pangramin® SLIT) was used. Total symptom scores (TSS) and anti-allergic medication scores (AMS) were evaluated before and 1 year after SLIT.
  
  
  RESULTS
  TSS improved in both groups, and the change was comparable in the 2 groups (ΔTSS, 5.1 vs 5.3; p = 0.538). Also among the young age group, ΔTSS did not significantly differ between school-age children and adolescents (5.2 vs 4.9, p = 0.429). Thirty-five out of 54 youngsters (64.8%) and 11 out of 22 adults (50.0%) showed improvement in TSS over 30%. AMS were significantly decreased in both groups. ΔAMS tended to be higher in the young age group, but the difference did not reach statistical significance (57.2 vs 35.7, p = 0.060).
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Doo Hee
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Yoon-Seok
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Ji-Eun
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Dong-Young
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jeong-Whun
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Chul Hee
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Chae-Seo
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Rhee
mesh_terms: D000286:Administration, Sublingual; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D039741:Antigens, Dermatophagoides / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D002648:Child; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D018928:Immunity, Mucosal; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D039981:Pyroglyphidae / Q000276:immunology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012221:Rhinitis, Allergic, Perennial / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D039741:Antigens, Dermatophagoides