Długofalowa skuteczność - immunoterapia alergenowa przedsezonowa czy całoroczna?

Allergen therapy (AIT) is considered to be the only causative treatment for allergic diseases. It was proven to be effective by lowering allergy burden while lowering the symptomatic medication intake. Unlike standard pharmacotherapy, it can also modify the course of the disease and its clinical benefits can be observed for as long as 12 years after treatment discontinuation. In patients suffering from seasonal allergy, 2 different regimens of AIT - perennial or preseasonal - can be applied. The data regarding direct differences in safety and efficacy of these regimens are scarce; however, a recent publication presented results of a first randomized, placebo controlled head-to-head comparison of those 2 regimens. The study revealed that perennial therapy was significantly more effective in reducing the symptom-medication score than preseasonal regimen, while maintaining the same safety profile. Such outcome can be explained by a higher cumulative dose, which correlates strongly with clinical effectiveness. Other studies showed that despite being seemingly more burdensome, the perennial regimen was associated with a significantly higher compliance than the preseasonal scheme. The available literature allows us to conclude that, while both AIT regimens are effective and safe, the perennial immunotherapy has significantly better efficacy and adherence, which makes it a viable treatment of choice in patients with allergic diseases.