Whole blood histamine release rate during immunotherapy for nasal allergy.

In treating nasal allergies, desensitization is widely used on a daily basis, and its efficacy has been highly valued. With the purpose of predicting therapeutic efficacy before carrying out immunotherapy, we compared whole blood histamine release rate and various subjective symptoms before and after immunotherapy. We also compared the degrees of efficacy. Immunotherapy brought about a tendency for a reduction in the whole blood histamine release rate. This tendency appeared most marked in those patients in whom an improvement of subjective symptoms was considerable. Among subjective symptoms, the reduction in whole blood histamine release rate was strongest against nasal discharge and sneezing. In patients with a low histamine release rate prior to the initiation of immunotherapy, the improvement in subjective symptoms tended to be low.