Lack of subsensitivity to loratadine during long-term dosing during 12 weeks.

The development of subsensitivity to first-generation H1 blockers often occurs within days or weeks of treatment. It is manifested by a decrease in efficacy and a waning of the inhibition of skin reactivity to allergen or histamine. Subsensitivity to loratadine was investigated in a double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel group study in 20 allergic subjects (22 to 35 years) who received either placebo or loratadine (10 mg one daily) for 12 weeks.

Double-blind, placebo-controlled immunotherapy with mixed grass-pollen allergoids. III. Efficacy and safety of unfractionated and high-molecular-weight preparations in rhinoconjunctivitis and asthma.

Specific immunotherapy with unmodified formalinized allergoids is effective in grass-pollen allergy, but systemic reactions have been observed. A high-molecular-weight formalinized allergoid (HMW-GOID) was fractionated by gel filtration, retaining molecules of greater than 85,000 daltons in the expectation of improving safety without sacrificing efficacy. HMW-GOID and unfractionated allergoid (GOID) had a similar allergenic activity assessed by RAST inhibition, but the HMW-GOID preparation was 65 times less reactive when it was tested by skin prick test than the GOID preparation.

Specific immunotherapy with a standardized Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus extract. II. Prediction of efficacy of immunotherapy.

House dust mites of the species Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (Dpt) represent one of the major allergens inducing asthma. However, a strict allergy to Dpt is not always observed in Dpt-allergic patients, since nonallergic and other allergic triggering factors often coexist. It was suggested that specific immunotherapy with house dust-mite extracts is more effective in children than in adults.

Double-blind placebo-controlled study of loratadine, mequitazine, and placebo in the symptomatic treatment of seasonal allergic rhinitis.

Loratadine is a long-acting H1 antagonist devoid of anticholinergic and sedative effects. A double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study was performed in 69 patients to compare efficacy and safety of loratadine and mequitazine. Patients allergic to grass pollens were randomly assigned to one of the three treatment groups and followed up to 2 weeks during the peak of the pollen season.

Allergy in long-term hemodialysis. II. Allergic and atopic patterns of a population of patients undergoing long-term hemodialysis.

Maintenance hemodialysis is widely used throughout the world, and anaphylactic reactions appear to be increasing in number and severity. However, the exact incidence of sensitization and the role of atopy in these reactions are not yet fully understood. All of the 111 patients routinely dialyzed in a center were tested.

Skin test reactivity to histamine from infancy to old age.

The skin test reactivity to allergen and histamine differs according to the age of the patients, but complete data from infancy to old age are still lacking. Three hundred sixty-five subjects (1 to 85 years of age, 33.9% atopic, and 50.

Allergy in chronic haemodialysis. 1. Double-blind intravenous challenge with formaldehyde.

Patients undergoing chronic haemodialysis are often exposed to formaldehyde formaldehyde (F) has been reported to cause IgE-mediated anaphylactic shock. Many other patients reported pruritus or anaphylaxis-like symptoms when dialysed with F-sterilized dialysers. Ten patients presenting such symptoms were compared with five control subjects.

Double-blind, placebo-controlled immunotherapy with mixed grass-pollen allergoids. I. Rush immunotherapy with allergoids and standardized orchard grass-pollen extract.

Forty-five grass pollen-allergic patients were randomly assigned to three groups according to their skin test and RAST sensitivities and the severity of seasonal rhinitis. Eleven patients were treated with placebo (group 1), 19 patients (group 2) were treated with a six-mixed grass-pollen allergoid prepared by mild formalinization with a two-step procedure, and 15 other patients were treated with a standardized orchard grass-pollen extract (group 3). Because of a different immunotherapy schedule, only patients placed in groups 1 and 2 received the extracts in a double-blind fashion.