A randomized trial of oral immunotherapy for pediatric cow's milk-induced anaphylaxis: Heated vs unheated milk

Background: Severe reactions may develop during cow's milk (CM) oral immunotherapy (OIT). We investigated the safety and efficacy of low-dose OIT with heated milk (HM) or unheated milk (UM) in children with anaphylaxis.

Methods: Children with symptom onset after ingestion of 3-mL HM on a double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge were randomly assigned to the HM (n = 17) or UM (n = 16) group. HM group ingested milk powder heated at 125°C for 30 seconds, whereas the UM group used UM. Patients were hospitalized for 5 days; the HM or UM was gradually increased to 3 mL/day; 3-mL/day ingestion was continued at home. One year later, the patients underwent 2-day consecutive 3- and 25-mL HM-oral food challenges (OFCs) after 2-week avoidance.

Results: At baseline, milk- and casein-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels were 56.0 and 51.4 kUA/L in the HM group, and 55.2 and 65.6 kUA/L in the UM group, respectively. One year later, 35% and 18% in the HM group and 50% and 31% in UM group passed the 3 and 25 mL OFCs, respectively. Rates of moderate or severe symptoms and respiratory symptoms per home dose were significantly lower in the HM than in the UM group (0.7% and 1.2% vs 1.4% and 2.6%, respectively, P < .001). β-lactoglobulin-specific IgG₄ levels significantly increased from baseline only in the UM group, whereas casein-specific IgG₄ levels significantly increased from baseline in both groups.

Conclusions: HM-OIT induced immunological changes more safely than the UM-OIT. The possibility of lower treatment efficacy with HM-OIT needs to be evaluated in larger studies.