Individual and Laboratory Indices of 210 Patients with Chronic Urticaria with or without Angioedema Referred to the Asthma and Allergy Clinic of Ahvaz in 2015-2018

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Chronic urticaria is a common skin condition that is manifested with erythematous or white edema, itching, and transient dermis with or without angioedema. Due to insufficient knowledge of the etiology of many of these chronic lesions, this study was performed to investigate some factors related to individual and laboratory indices of patients. METHODS: In this descriptive study, 210 patients (154 females and 54 males) with chronic urticaria referred to Asthma and Allergy Clinic of Ahvaz from September 2015 to February 2019 were evaluated. Routine tests were performed for all patients including blood cell count, antinuclear antibodies, thyroxine and thyroid stimulating hormones, anti-thyroperoxidase (TPO) and anti-thyroglobulin (Tg) antibodies, glutamate-oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT) and glutamate-pyruvate transaminase (GPT) enzymes, autologous serum skin test and stool test. FINDINGS: Of all patients, 166 (79%) had physical urticaria, 125 (59.5%) had atopy and 158 (75%) had angioedema. Autologous serum skin test with a frequency of more than 74.28% was positive in patients. Except for 3 patients (1.42%) with low serum levels of thyroid stimulating hormone and normal thyroxine (mild hypothyroidism) and 49 patients (23.33%) with abnormal increase in anti-thyroperoxidase and anti-thyroglobulin serum antibodies, the rest of the subjects (75.23%) were healthy. The results of anti-nuclear antibody and stool tests were also generally normal. CONCLUSION: Based on the results of this study, in order to diagnose patients with chronic urticaria with or without angioedema, it is necessary to perform autologous serum skin test and thyroid function tests along with detailed clinical examinations.

Keywords

• chronic urticaria
• autologous serum skin test
• thyroid function tests.