BACKGROUND The recommended first-line therapy of chronic urticaria is second-generation antihistamines, but the modalities of treatment remains unclear. Numerous recommendations with heterogeneous conclusions have been published. We wondered whether such heterogeneous conclusions were linked to the quality of published studies and their reporting. OBJECTIVE To review the study design and qual...

Chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU) is a common autoimmune skin condition characterized by spontaneously recurring hives for 6 weeks or longer. The new terminology used for CIU in most countries including Canada is chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU). CSU is associated with significant psychosocial morbidity with a markedly negative impact on overall quality of life. Conventional approaches with...

Urticaria is a kind of skin rash that sometimes caused by allergic reactions. Acute viral infection, stress, pressure, exercise and sunlight are some other causes of urticaria. However, chronic urticaria and angioedema could be either idiopathic or caused by autoimmune reaction. They last more than six weeks and could even persist for a very long time. It is thought that the level of C-reactive...

We appreciated the paper by Levy et al published in this journal in June 2003. A number of the cases of chronic urticaria in children appear to be of unknown aetiology, and experiences such as the one reported by the authors indicate an autoimmune origin. In our opinion the model of association between thyroiditis and chronic urticaria may apply to the association between coeliac disease and ch...

BACKGROUND Chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU) is one of the most frequent skin diseases, however its causes remain unknown in the vast majority of cases. There is increasing evidence for systemic effects of gastric Helicobacter pylori infection, which may result in extra gastrointestinal disorders. Although CIU can result from several causes, a possible relationship between chronic urticaria an...

269 Refractory Chronic Urticaria Treated with Omalizumab Martinez Saenz, NP, Ramírez Del Pozo, ME, Lopez Tiro JJ, and Javier Gomez Vera, MD. Alergia e inmunologia clínica, Hospital Regional Lic. Adolfo Lopez Mateos, Distrito Federal, Mexico. Background: Chronic urticaria (CU) is a common disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of urticaria pruritic erythematous lesions, associated with ang...