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Chronic Urticaria Patients (chronic + urticaria_patient)
Selected AbstractsMatrix metalloproteinase-9: a novel biomarker for monitoring disease activity in patients with chronic urticaria patients?ALLERGY, Issue 4 2009S. Altrichter Background:, Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9, an enzyme that contributes to inflammatory responses and subsequent tissue remodelling, has recently been suggested to be a good biomarker for monitoring disease activity in patients with chronic urticaria (CU). Here, we assessed whether total MMP-9 and/or active MMP-9 plasma levels are increased and correlated to disease activity in patients with CU. Methods:, Total MMP-9 and active MMP-9 plasma levels were determined by ELISA in 70 CU patients and control subjects (patients with psoriasis and healthy controls). CU activity was measured using weekly and daily composite symptom scores (urticaria activity score) calculated from the number of wheals and the intensity of pruritus. Results:, Significantly increased levels of total and active MMP-9 were detected in patients with CU as compared to healthy controls. Interestingly, patients with psoriasis also had clearly elevated plasma levels of total and active MMP-9, indicating that MMP-9 plasma levels do not specifically reflect CU activity. Most notably, total and active MMP-9 levels were not correlated with disease activity in CU or psoriasis patients. Conclusion:, Plasma MMP-9 is not a good CU biomarker and should not be used for assessing the efficacy of treatment in CU patients or their spontaneous changes in disease activity. [source] ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Chronic urticaria is associated with a differential helminth,arthropod-related atopy phenotypeTHE JOURNAL OF DERMATOLOGY, Issue 9 2010Alvaro DASCHNER Abstract The relationship between atopic sensitization and chronic urticaria is still controversial. In this study, we aimed to compare the prevalence of aeroallergen sensitization in chronic urticaria patients with (CU/As+) and without (CU/As,) sensitization against Anisakis simplex. Forty-nine CU/As+ and 80 CU/As, patients were studied and skin prick tests (SPT) were performed against aeroallergens. We assessed sensitization in a subgroup of patients with allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and/or bronchial asthma (RCBA) and compared the prevalence with a control group of 522 non-urticaria patients with RCBA. Forty-five percent of CU/As, and 60.4% of CU/As+ patients displayed positive SPT to at least one aeroallergen. CU/As+ patients had a higher prevalence of sensitization against pollen, mould or dander (PMD) (52.2% vs 29.1%, P < 0.01), whereas the prevalence of house dust mite (HDM) sensitization was not statistically different (26.3% in CU/As, and 36.7% in CU/As+). However, in chronic urticaria patients with RCBA, 53.8% of CU/As, and 57.9% of CU/As+ patients differed in the prevalence of HDM sensitization compared to the control group (33.5%, P = 0.03), whereas no difference could be stated for PMD sensitization. Compared to RCBA patients, both CU/As+ and CU/As, patients have a higher clinically relevant sensitization rate against HDM, thus displaying a differential atopy phenotype. [source] Blood basophil numbers in chronic ordinary urticaria and healthy controls: diurnal variation, influence of loratadine and prednisolone and relationship to disease activityCLINICAL & EXPERIMENTAL ALLERGY, Issue 3 2003C. E. H. Grattan Summary Background The basopenia of chronic urticaria relates to histamine releasing autoantibodies in the serum of patients with autoimmune urticaria. This reduction in circulating basophils may be due to active recruitment into weals. If so, it might be expected that numbers in blood would be reduced when urticaria is active and increased after treatment. The primary aim of this study was to look at diurnal variation of basophil numbers in patients with chronic ordinary urticaria (not physical or vasculitic) in relation to disease activity and the effect of treatment with antihistamines and corticosteroids, and to compare the results with healthy controls. A secondary aim was to compare a standard manual counting method with automated basophil counts and to look at numbers of other circulating leucocytes that might be relevant to urticaria pathogenesis. Methods Manual basophil counts using a toluidine blue stain and automated 5-part differentials (Coulter® Gen. SÔ) were performed at 4-hourly intervals from 08.00 to 20.00 in 10 healthy controls (six women, age 24 to 63 years) and seven chronic urticaria patients (five women, 24 to 50 years). All chronic urticaria patients had severe daily or almost daily urticaria. Only one of six chronic urticaria sera showed in vitro basophil histamine releasing activity. Counts were performed without treatment, after a week of taking loratadine 10 mg daily and after 3 days of adding prednisolone at 0.6 mg/kg/day (maximum 40 mg). Daily urticarial activity scores (UAS) were derived from weal numbers and itch, maximum 7. Results There was no significant overall diurnal variation of basophil numbers in healthy controls or chronic urticaria patients. Mean (SE) manually counted basophil were higher in healthy controls than chronic urticaria (43.4/µL (2.1) vs. 4.4 (0.8), P < 0.001). Basophil counts were reduced in healthy controls on steroids (19.2 (1.9), P < 0.001) but increased in chronic urticaria (8.9 (1.9), P < 0.001). Loratadine did not influence them. UAS fell on treatment (3.3 (0.4) baseline, 1.4 (0.5) on loratadine and 0.5 (0.2) on prednisolone with loratadine, P < 0.001). There was a negative linear correlation between basophil numbers and UAS in untreated chronic urticaria patients (P = 0.001, Spearman rank correlation). Manual and automated basophil counts showed poor agreement. Lymphocyte numbers were lower in chronic urticaria than healthy controls. Neutrophils increased whereas lymphocytes and eosinophils decreased in all subjects on prednisolone. They were unaffected by loratadine. Conclusion The results are consistent with the hypothesis that circulating basophils may be recruited from blood into urticarial weals during disease activity. Automated counts are not suitable for assessing basophil numbers in chronic urticaria. The relevance of reduced lymphocyte numbers in chronic urticaria needs to be explored. [source] | ||||||||||