Alternaria allergy: a three-year controlled study in children treated with immunotherapy.

In this prospective controlled study, 39 children with Alternaria-induced asthma and/or rhinitis were followed-up over a 3-year period. Skin tests and RAST were positive to Alternaria tenuis only. All children were treated with specific Alternaria immunotherapy. The long-term results have shown that immunotherapy was successful in 80% of the children given more than 80.000 PNU. By contrast, the outcome of 40 selected controls also followed during the same period who did not receive immunotherapy was almost exactly the opposite. In addition to demonstrating the clinical effectivity of specific Alternaria immunotherapy, the authors stress the relationship between successful results, highest tolerated doses, and larger cumulative dosage, which is irrespective of the duration of the therapy.