ABSTRACT
Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is defined using clinical symptoms as spontaneous occurrence of itchy wheals and/or angioedema for at least 6 weeks. Angioedema is underdiagnosed in CSU patients, and its presence has significant negative impact on health-related quality of life, daily activities, health care resource utilization, and work. Various cytokines have been found to be involved in pathogenesis of CSU. To study levels of interleukin (IL)-10 and IL-18 in CSU patients and to look for the differences in CSU subgroups divided with regard to angioedema reoccurrence, we included consecutive CSU patients into the study. To assess disease activity, urticaria activity score was used. In addition, we calculated disease duration time. In all groups, Il-10 and Il-18 serum concentrations were measured. The study involved 52 patients with CSU and 47 healthy volunteers. The IL-10 level was statistically significantly higher in patients with CSU compared to the control group. There were no significant differences in level of IL-18 between those groups. Comparison of patients with CSU and angioedema with those without angioedema showed no significant differences in level of IL-10 and IL-18. We see the need for further studies of serum levels of IL-10 and IL-18 to better understand the pathogenesis of the disease and to find markers useful in predicting the symptom type in the course of CSU.