Recent research showed oral sesame desensitisation was safe and beneficial for younger allergy patients at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) 2023 Annual Conference in San Antonio, Texas. 1
Oral desensitisation was a newly available technique for treating food allergies, but there was no information on its effectiveness in the US.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York’s Ami Shah, MD, conducted the study, which entailed a retrospective chart review of information on paediatric patients.
At a paediatric food allergy referral facility, these younger kids received oral desensitisation to sesame/tahini therapy.
The median age of the 86 patients whose data were included in the study was 5 years. The procedure began with an oral food challenge (OFC) using tahini and crushed sesame seeds at a low dose that was gradually increased.
The patients’ dose of OFC was increased until they were on a maintenance dose, which was typically 1 teaspoon of tahini (i.e. 1000 mg of sesame protein).
30.2% (26) of the 86 paediatric patients were still in the build-up phase, whereas 59.3% (51) had reached maintenance. The researchers found that 10.5% (9) of the participants elected to stop the treatment because of uncontrolled asthma, different reactions, difficulties with daily dose, or other unidentified factors.
29.1% of the patients (25) in the study experienced allergic responses with daily treatment, but just one of the reactions required epinephrine, according to the research team.
Each of the 10 patients who were successful in achieving maintenance dosage also finished the full dose of OFC to 1 tablespoon of tahini (i.e. 3000 mg of sesame protein). The team also stated that 100% of the results had negative OFCs.
Following the cessation of daily sesame dose for a combined period of 4 to 6 weeks, these 10 individuals were then given a sustained lack of response (SOR) to a single tablespoon of tahini. The researchers also noted that all of the outcomes were unfavourable.
Our sister publication HCP Live first published this article.
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