Daily Clinical Practice in the Management of Chronic Urticaria in Spain: Results of the UCREX Study.

BACKGROUND: Chronic Urticaria (CU) is a debilitating disease whose treatment is mainly symptomatic. UCREX study aimed to identify CU patients' profile, disease management and quality-of-life (QoL) in daily clinical practice in Spain. METHODS: Observational, 12-months prospective, multicenter study, included de novo or established CU patients attending to dermatology/allergy consultations in 39 Spanish hospitals. MAIN VARIABLES: Urticaria Activity Score (UAS), UAS over 7 days (UAS7). Secondary variables: CU-QoL Questionnaire (CU-Q2oL), EuroQol-5 dimensions (EQ-5D), Medical Outcomes Study Sleep (MOS-Sleep) scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). RESULTS: 361 patients included. Of them, 176 (48.8%) considered for the main objective analysis. Mean age (SD) of 46.6 (14.2) years and 71.8% women. The year prior to inclusion, most patients (57.1%) were treated with non-sedating H1-antihistamines (NS-H1AH). At baseline, mean (SD) 3.6 (6.8) visits were registered to primary care. Mean (SD) UAS7 at baseline was 14.3 (11.0) and CU-Q2oL 24.1 (17.0) which tended to improve by 8.6 (9.7) and 13.9 (15.0), respectively, at 12-months. MOS-Sleep and EQ-5D remained steady during the study, except pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression which went from 58.7% and 49.6% to 29.6% and 26.9%, respectively. At baseline, HADS showed a mean (SD) anxiety of 8.7 (4.5) and depression 5.1 (4.4), decreasing to 7.0 (4.3) and 4.7 (4.3), respectively, at 12-months. CONCLUSIONS: Although most CU patients are treated with NS-H1AH, disease activity is still important, negatively affecting patients' QoL, work activity and healthcare resources use. An appropriate disease management could be the basis for symptoms control, QoL improvement and resources optimization.

Daily Clinical Practice in the Management of Chronic Urticaria in Spain: Results of the UCREX Study. / [Artículo traducido] Práctica clínica diaria en el manejo de la urticaria crónica en España: resultados del estudio UCREX.

BACKGROUND: Chronic Urticaria (CU) is a debilitating disease whose treatment is mainly symptomatic. UCREX study aimed to identify CU patients' profile, disease management and quality-of-life (QoL) in daily clinical practice in Spain. METHODS: Observational, 12-months prospective, multicenter study, included de novo or established CU patients attending to dermatology/allergy consultations in 39 Spanish hospitals. MAIN VARIABLES: Urticaria Activity Score (UAS), UAS over 7 days (UAS7). Secondary variables: CU-QoL Questionnaire (CU-Q2oL), EuroQol-5 dimensions (EQ-5D), Medical Outcomes Study Sleep (MOS-Sleep) scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). RESULTS: 361 patients included. Of them, 176 (48.8%) considered for the main objective analysis. Mean age (SD) of 46.6 (14.2) years and 71.8% women. The year prior to inclusion, most patients (57.1%) were treated with non-sedating H1-antihistamines (NS-H1AH). At baseline, mean (SD) 3.6 (6.8) visits were registered to primary care. Mean (SD) UAS7 at baseline was 14.3 (11.0) and CU-Q2oL 24.1 (17.0) which tended to improve by 8.6 (9.7) and 13.9 (15.0), respectively, at 12-months. MOS-Sleep and EQ-5D remained steady during the study, except pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression which went from 58.7% and 49.6% to 29.6% and 26.9%, respectively. At baseline, HADS showed a mean (SD) anxiety of 8.7 (4.5) and depression 5.1 (4.4), decreasing to 7.0 (4.3) and 4.7 (4.3), respectively, at 12-months. CONCLUSIONS: Although most CU patients are treated with NS-H1AH, disease activity is still important, negatively affecting patients' QoL, work activity and healthcare resources use. An appropriate disease management could be the basis for symptoms control, QoL improvement and resources optimization.

Clinical and functional differences among patients with idiopathic anaphylaxis.

BACKGROUND: There are no studies assesing whether patients with idiopathic anaphylaxis are a heterogenous population OBJECTIVE: A study has been carried out to assess whether clinical and functional differences (mast cell releasability) exist between two sub-types of Idiopathic Anaphylaxis (Generalized Idiopathic Anaphylaxis -IA-G- and Idiopathic Anaphylaxis with Angioedema -IA-A-). METHODS: Patients were selected from the Idiopathic Anaphylaxis (IA) patient population of Hospital General de Albacete (Albacete, Spain) and this data were collected between 1990 and 1995. This series is composed of 81 patients. In the interest of seeing whether an IA classification is warranted between IA-G and IA-A, a logistic regression model was constructed in order to know if differences exist between IA-G and IA-A. To evaluate mast cell releaseability in different groups (IA-G, IA-A, atopic patients, urticaria and healthy subjects) we analysed the log 10 wheal area produced by four consecutive concentrations of codeine (from 90 to 3,3 mg/ ml). In those patients with IA-G, the variable urticaria was controlled, but not in those with IA-A. A parallel line assay was used to study the differences arising among all groups. When the conditions of parallelism and linearity were not fulfilled, a Hotelling's T2 test was performed. RESULTS: In the logistic regression equation total IgE, with an O.R. of 1.006 (95% C.I. 1.001-1.01) favoured the presence of IA-G; whereas the presence of urticaria did not favour the presence of IA-G, with an O.R. of 0.159 (95% C.I. 0.04-0.507). IA-G and IA-A patients showed a higher cutaneous reaction to codeine than atopic patients (p=0.005 and p=0.001 respectively). However, IA-G patients had a lower reaction to codeine than those patients with urticaria (p=0.048). No differences were observed among patients with IA-A and patients with urticaria, as was the case between IA-A and IA-G patients with respect to cutaneous response to codeine. CONCLUSION: Apparently, IA-G patients appear to be closely related to the presence of atopy, while IA-A patients are closely related to the presence of urticaria. Along with other unknown factors, an enhanced mast cell releaseability may explain these episodes of Idiopathic Anaphylaxis among atopic patients.

Asthma in children and ASA intolerance.

Intolerance to acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) in asthmatics has been widely studied in the adult population, and to a lesser extent in children. In the present study, we present 16 asthmatics between the ages of 2 and 14 suffering from asthma induced by ASA ingestion, and the clinical characteristics are compared with a population of asthmatic children with a negative challenge test. The following results were obtained: 1) in contrast to in adults, females are not predisposed to ASA intolerance in childhood, the male:female ratio being the usual 2:1 in infantile asthma; 2) ASA intolerance can appear at a very early age (in our series the youngest was 1 year old); 3) extrinsic asthmatics are the most commonly affected, and also children with exercise-induced asthma; 4) in extrinsic asthmatics with asthma attacks precipitated by ASA, sinusitis is more frequent than in extrinsic asthmatics with ASA tolerance; 5) polyposis is exceptional; 6) the presence of associated urticaria is frequent, and much greater than in adult ASA-intolerant asthmatics; and 7) the results of the challenge with NSAIDs are similar to those obtained in adult patients, which would indicate a common pathophysiological mechanism related to the capacity of these drugs to inhibit cyclooxygenase activity.

Human basophil degranulation test in drug allergy.

We have evaluated the usefulness of HBDT as an in vitro method for the diagnosis of drug allergy. Two hundred and thirty six patients with suspected drug sensitization to penicillin, streptomycin, sulfamides, pyrazolones and A.S.A. were analyzed. Seventy-nine of them were allergic; in 43 cases it was confirmed by in vivo methods. Other patients were diagnosed by clinical history only if they had more than two reactions to the same drug. In order to be included in this group patients with reactions to pyrazolones and A.S.A. had to have tolerated other NSAI, therefore these patients were allergic to one compound only. All patients were considered non-allergic were determined by a negative provocation test. In the group of allergic patients we obtained 63 (79%) positive degranulations and 16 (21%) negative. One hundred and thirty two (84%) negative degranulations and 25 (16%) positive were obtained in the group of non-allergic patients. Once having analyzed 10 statistical parameters with each drug, the HBOT appears to be a useful method for these drugs except for streptomycin. In 16 (80%) out of 20 aspirin sensitive asthmatic patients we found that their basophils were degranulated. In 7 patients with urticaria and/or angioedema by A.S.A. and other NSAI the degranulation was negative, confirming the absence of the involvement of basophils in this reactions.

Cat sensitization provoking asthma and pulmonary infiltrates with eosinophilia.

We report a patient who developed asthma associated with exposure to cats. During his evolution he presented pulmonary infiltrates accompanied by eosinophilia in blood and sputum, hemoptysis and flu-like symptoms. The sera contained specific IgE and precipitating antibodies to cat epithelium. After a year without contact with cats, precipitating antibodies were negative, and a bronchial provocation test only demonstrated an immediate response.