Immunotherapy Application and Compliance Assessment
Patients were applied one of Alutard SQ 100% vespula or Apis mellifera
(Alutard SQ, ALK, Hørsholm, Denmark) venom immunotherapy, Allergovit
Grass 006 (Allergopharma Joachim Ganzer KG, Hamburg, Germany) allergen
immunotherapy or NovoHelisen Depot HDM %50 DP+%50 DF (Allergopharma
Joachim Ganzer KG, Hamburg, Germany) allergen immunotherapies. VIT doses
were administered in 1-week intervals and were gradually increased to
the maintenance dose over 6
months11. Then,
maintenance doses were administered every 4 to 6 weeks for up to 5
year12. AIT doses for
grass allergy and house dust mite(HDM) allergy; were administered in
1-week intervals and were gradually increased to the maintenance doses
over 6 weeks in grass and 14 weeks in
HDM13. Then,
maintenance doses were administered every 4 to 6 weeks for up to 4
years.
Compliance was defined as receiving the allergen immunotherapy according
to the prescribed treatment course for each patient, and evaluated
during the first-year, second-year, third year, fourth-year, and
fifth-year, or treatment completion. Patients who had ≤2 two week breaks
from their defined treatment schedule per year were accepted to be in
excellent compliance, 3 to 4 two week breaks were in good compliance, 5
to 6 two week breaks were fair compliance, and 7 or more two week breaks
were poor compliance14.
Patients who had three consecutive months delay from their defined
treatment schedule were accepted as dropped
out15. The reasons for
drop-out was recorded.