[CLINICAL EFFICACY OF SUBLINGUAL IMMUNOTHERAPY FOR JAPANESE CEDAR POLLINOSIS IN THE FIRST FOLLOW-UP YEAR].

Unlabelled: The first drug of sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) for Japanese Cedar pollinosis (JCP) was purchased in 2014.  

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to clear the clinical efficacy of SLIT by comparing with other therapies, such as subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT), or other pharmacotherapy.  

Methods: We started SLIT at our clinic in October-December, 2014. We compared the clinical efficacy of 191 SLIT with 48 SCIT, 191 primary pharmacotherapy that started therapies before pollen dispersal, 141 pharmacotherapy that started therapies after pollen disposal, or 169 non-treatment in the first follow-up year. The clinical efficacy was evaluated with quality of life (QOL) scores by Japanese rhino-conjunctivitis QOL questionnaire (JRQLQ No1), symptoms of nose and eye by visual analog scale (VAS), symptom scores and combined symptom-medication scores (SMS).  

Results: Mild adverse events (AEs) were observed in many cases, but no patient was discontinued by AEs in SLIT patients. Five cases by unknown reasons and 3 cases by inevitable reasons were dropped out before pollen. Adherence of SLIT was 89±12%. SCIT was better than SLIT in most assessments, but not significant. Both SCIT and SLIT were significantly better than other pharmacotherapy. Patients, whose symptom scores of nose and eye were 0 or 1 point without any rescue drugs, accounted for 16.8% of total SLIT in the first follow-up year.  

Conclusion: SCIT was slightly better than SLIT in reducing symptoms and SMS of JCP, and in improving QOL. However, the differences were not significant. SLIT was significantly effective than other pharmacotherapies.