A double-blind placebo-controlled trial of polymerized whole grass administered in an accelerated dosage schedule for immunotherapy of grass pollinosis

Forty-four patients were entered into a study of the efficacy and safety of individually polymerized grass (IPG) immunotherapy with an accelerated dosage schedule. Patients were paired on the basis of cutaneous end point titrations to timothy, orchard, and Bermuda grass-pollen extracts. In a double-blind manner, one patient in each pair was treated in nine weekly visits with 13 injections that totaled 24,000 PNU of each grass to which the patient had cutaneous reactivity. The other patient in each pair received caramelized glucose histamine placebo. Symptom and medication score sheets were completed by 33 patients each day of the grass season. Blocking antibody rose significantly in the IPG-treated group but was unchanged in the placebo-treated group. By Wilcoxon paired signed-rank test, the symptom medication scores in the IPG-treated group were significantly lower than those in the placebo-treated group. There were no systemic reactions and no clinically significant changes in routine laboratory tests in either group. In summation, this study demonstrates the safety, immunogenicity, and efficacy of IPG therapy in an accelerated dosage schedule for treatment of grass pollinosis.