A case of chronic urticaria in a child 6 years old is described. The strong skin reactivity upon intradermal injection of autologous serum suggested an autoreactive pathogenesis; however, patient's serum was unable to induce histamine release from basophils in-vitro, indicating the presence of a histamine-releasing factor specific for mast cells, and possibly other than an anti-FcepsilonRI or a...

Skin tests with autologous serum elicit an immediate wheal-and-flare response in about 30-50% of chronic idiopathic urticaria subjects, suggesting that an autoimmune mechanism might be involved in the pathogenesis of this disease. The aim of the present work, involving 68 subjects with chronic idiopathic urticaria, was to distinguish between the serum-positive and serum-negative cases and highl...

Background: The immunologic profile of chronic urticaria is not only important for diagnostic purposes, but also for therapeutic approaches. This study evaluated the serum levels of Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α) and Interferon-ϒ (IFN-ϒ) in patients with chronic urticaria to find a biomarker.Materials and Methods: Forty-one patients with chronic urticaria referring to the...

Vitamin D has an important role in the immune system. Decreased serum vitamin D level is known to be associated with autoimmune and atopic diseases. This study aimed to assess vitamin D status in patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) and its relation with severity of the disease. This case-control study was conducted on 22 patients and 20 age and sex matched controls. Patients were ...

BACKGROUND An association between class I and II alleles of the major histocompatibility complex and idiopathic chronic urticaria has previously been observed in different populations, but there are still no studies on Brazilian populations in this regard. OBJECTIVE The involvement of the major histocompatibility complex classes I and II (loci A, B and DR) in Brazilian patients with idiopathi...