Etiology of chronic urticaria: the Ecuadorian experience

Abstract

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to identify chronic urticaria (CU) etiologies and treatment modalities in Ecuador. We propose that the sample distribution fits the expected one, and that there is an association between the etiology and its treatment.MethodsWe performed a retrospective study involving 112 patients diagnosed with CU using a Checklist for a complete chronic urticaria medical history. Demographic and clinical variables were collected. The etiology of CU was classified using the EAACI/GA2LEN/EDF/WAO guideline. Descriptive analyses were performed for demographical and clinical variables. Chi square tests were applied to analyze the fit of distribution and the independence of variables. P values less than 0.05 were considered significant.ResultsAmong all the patients, 76.8% were diagnosed with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), of which 22.3% had a known etiology or possible exacerbating condition. Food allergy was identified as the most common accompanying condition in patients with CSU (10.7%) (p < 0.01).. On the other hand, 23.2% inducible urticarias (CIndU) were indentified; dermographism was the most common (10.7%) (p < 0.01).Regarding treatment regimens, sg-H1-antihistamines alone represented the highest proportion (44.6%). The combination of any H1-antihistamine plus other drug was a close second (42.0%) (p < 0.01). Almost 48% of CSUs of unknown etiology were treated with any antihistamine plus another drug. In patients with known etiology, sg-antihistamines alone (44.0%) was the most common management. In addition, 53.8% of CIndUs were treated with sg-antihistamines alone. Though, these associations were not statistically significant.ConclusionCSU is the most frequent subtype of CU. Modern non-sedating antihistamines in licensed doses are the drug of choice. Nevertheless, a great proportion of patients require the addition of another type of medication.

Latin American chronic urticaria registry (CUR) contribution to the understanding and knowledge of the disease in the region

“…Our population with 3 out of 4 female patients below 40 years old is not different from previous reports on the topic, and even from predominant age and sex in a smaller Ecuadorian sample 9 . Surprisingly, coincidentally with this comparison, the median time of evolution of urticaria by the time of assessment in our registry was also above 16 weeks.…”

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