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Chronic urticaria: the first visit in a specialized unit
World Allergy Organization Journal volume 8, page A125 (2015)
Background
The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical profile of patients with chronic urticaria (CU) at first visit in a specialized CU unit.
Methods
Cross-sectional study of patients seen from January/2012 to June/2014. Patients diagnosed with acute urticaria (n=5) were excluded.
Results
Among the 50 CU patients, 70% were female. The mean age at the consultation was 33 years, but the mean age of symptoms onset was 15.3 years. Fifty one percent referred only urticaria, 44% referred urticaria associated with angioedema and 5% presented isolated angioedema. Besides itching, 6 patients complained of burning (12%) and 2 of pain (4%). Frequency of wheals was daily in 33%, weekly in 36% and monthly in 31%. At first visit, Urticaria Activity Score was verified in 24 patients, resulting > 3 in half of them. The most associated atopic disease was rhinitis (45%). Many patients mentioned triggers as medicines (33%), food (23%), stress (17%), viral infection (8%) and physical agents (16%). Only 6% had thyroidopathy. As previous treatment a significant amount of patients received sedating antihistamines (AH) (36%) or oral corticosteroids (24%), with partial improvement in 65% and complete improvement in 29%. Dermographism was positive in 91% of the patients tested (20/22). One of them was diagnosed with cholinergic urticaria and another one with delayed pressure urticaria.
Conclusions
The higher prevalence of CU was in middle-aged women. However, strong association with thyroiditis was not found. Sedating AH and corticosteroids are still the most prescribed drugs.
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Machado Pereira, C.T., Aquino, B.M., Hardt, F.C.C. et al. Chronic urticaria: the first visit in a specialized unit. World Allergy Organ J 8 (Suppl 1), A125 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/1939-4551-8-S1-A125
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1939-4551-8-S1-A125