[Value of allergen nasal provocation test in assessment of the efficacy of house dust mites specific immunotherapy].

Objective: To investigate the value of nasal provocation test（NPT） in evaluating the efficacy of allergen immunotherapy（AIT） in patients with dust mite induced allergic rhinitis（AR）. Methods: A total of 83 patients with dust mite induced AR with/without asthma were included. Symptom score（SS）, daily medication score（DMS）, combined symptom and medication score（CSMS）, rhinoconjunctivitis quality of life questionnaire（RQLQ）, NPT and skin prick test（SPT） were assessed before and after 1 year AIT. Results: There were statistical differences in SS（ P <0.000 1）, DMS（ P <0.000 1）, CSMS（ P <0.000 1）, and RQLQ（ P <0.000 1） after 1 year of AIT compared with pre-treatment. The effective rate of CSMS was 73.49%, and the effective rate of NPT was 42.17%. CSMS was consistent with NPT in efficacy assessment（Kappa=0.437, P <0.001）; while in 54 patients with pre-treatment NPT concentrations other than the original concentration, CMSM and NPT showed better consistence（Kappa=0.895, P <0.001）. Among the 48 patients with ineffective NPT assessment in the first year, 25 patients completed the second-year follow-up, and 12 patients（48.00%） showed effective in NPT. However, 10 out of 12 patients（83.33%） with NPT concentration other than original solution pre-treatment showed effective NPT at the second year. Conclusion: NPT can be used as one of the indicators for efficacy evaluation for dust mite induced AR patients, especially for patients with positive NPT induced at lower concentrations before treatment.
Competing Interests: The authors of this article and the planning committee members and staff have no relevant financial relationships with commercial interests to disclose.
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