title: [ALLERGEN IMMUNOTHERAPY IN CHILDREN].
abstract: Children are thought to have high plasticity in the immune system. Thus, it is expected that allergen immunotherapy for children may have higher efficacy than adults and has real disease-modifying potential to allergic diseases. For clinical efficacy in ameliorating allergic symptoms, however, current systematic reviews have not shown any superior effect in children, partly because of less number of studies in this age group. On the other hand, preventive effects against asthma inception in children with allergic rhinitis and sensitization "spreading" to new allergens have been reported, implicating that allergen immunotherapy has a potential to stop "allergy march" in children. To make the therapy more effective, it is preferable to start it as early as possible, hopefully in infancy. But it is still difficult at present because of relatively frequent adverse events and invasive manner of administering allergen extracts for young children. We need safer and more effective methods in performing immunotherapy for children.
authors.affiliation: Allergy Center, Mie National Hospital, Japan.
authors.forename: Takao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujisawa
mesh_terms: D000485:Allergens / Q000276:immunology; D002648:Child; D003888:Desensitization, Immunologic / Q000379:methods; D061345:Early Medical Intervention; D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D007073:Immunoglobulin E / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000485:Allergens; D007073:Immunoglobulin E