This article is in press and will be published in Annals from the College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology next month. I thought the study is very interesting given the “push” for oral desensitization. I just returned from the AAAAI annual meeting and it appears that patients with food allergy can become “desensitized” or cured, however, that comes with a cost of potential anaphylaxis during treatment. Think of it like the use of allergy shots which are very effective, but you can develop anaphylaxis after an allergy shot that will need additional treatment such as epinephrine. The question I have is, “should this therapy with foods be used at home where parents and patients don’t know much about giving epi?”
Here’s the summary–>Asthma patients are at risk for more severe reactions and less likely to reach full desensitization during milk oral immunotherapy, according to a study in Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Researchers in Israel studied 194 subjects 6 years and older with IgE-mediated cow’s milk allergy, with and without asthma, undergoing milk oral immunotherapy. Regardless of severity, subjects with asthma had more reactions and injectable epinephrine use during induction, and more home treatments with immunotherapy. Moderate to severe asthma also was associated with a lower likelihood of reaching full desensitization
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