House dust allergy.

Abstract

THE GENERAL approach in handling house dust sensitivity has remained practically unchanged since the clinical importance of house dust as an allergen was appreciated by Cooke¹in 1918 and the subsequent and almost simultaneous publications of Vander Veer,²Kern³and Cooke⁴in 1921 and 1922. The next milestone along this way was the development of superior methods of extracting and standardizing house dust extracts by Boatner and Efron⁵in 1940. More recent contributions to the understanding of the house dust problem, particularly as it affected certain cases, was the emphasis on low dosage schedules by Hansel⁶and the improved methods of specific diagnosis and treatment of inhalant allergy as recently worked out by Rinkel.⁷ <h3>MATERIALS AND METHODS</h3> The technics of specific inhalant diagnosis and therapy, as recently outlined by Rinkel, have been used exclusively in connection with the management of house dust allergy for the past