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Milk oral immunotherapy is effective in school‐aged children
Author(s) -
Salmivesi Susanna,
Korppi Matti,
Mäkelä Mika J,
Paassilta Marita
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
acta paediatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2012.02815.x
Subject(s) - medicine , placebo , oral immunotherapy , allergy , desensitization (medicine) , pediatrics , milk allergy , placebo controlled study , randomized controlled trial , double blind , food allergy , immunology , alternative medicine , receptor , pathology
Aims: To study the efficacy of oral immunotherapy (OIT) in schoolchildren with cow’s milk (CM) allergy (CMA). Methods: Twenty‐eight children aged 6–14 years with CMA documented by oral challenge were enrolled into a randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled OIT study. In the active treatment, CM protein amount was increased during 23 weeks from 0.06 mg to a maximum of 6400 mg (200 mL of milk). Results: Twenty‐four (86%) patients completed the protocol: 16/18 in active and 8/10 in placebo groups. All children in the active and 2/3 in the placebo group suffered from symptoms considered by the parents as induced by milk. The children were contacted by phone 12 months later, and 13 (81%) used daily CM or milk products corresponding 6400 mg of CM protein. After double‐blind OIT, all 10 children in the placebo group completed successfully an open‐label OIT by an identical protocol, and all used daily CM or milk products 6 months later. Three to 3.5 years later, one child more had discontinued daily milk use. Thus, the long‐term success rate was 22/28 (79%). Conclusions: This placebo‐controlled, double‐blind study confirmed that OIT was effective in desensitizing schoolchildren with CMA. With occasional exceptions, the reached desensitization sustained for more than 3 years.