A comparative study of effectiveness of autologus serum therapy with oral antihistamines versus oral methotrexate and oral antihistamines in chronic urticaria patients

Abstract

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Chronic urticaria (CU) is a worrisome problem and patients of CU suffer from the morbidity that arises from irritable itch thus they are subjected to a huge antihistamine pill burden. The symptoms are more prominent in autoreactive urticaria (AU) where auto-antibodies in blood causing recurrent flares. Therefore a need of adjunctive drug to reduce the pill burden is felt need.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> A randomized, controlled study was done. 50 patients were given AST and 50 patients were given oral pulse methotrexate (10-15 mg once weekly) along with levocetrizine in an on-demand basis in both groups. AST was given weekly for nine weeks and followed-up for a total period of 24 weeks. Urticaria total severity score (UTSS) was used to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment. Safety parameters assessed were the spontaneously reported adverse events and laboratory parameters.<strong></strong></p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> UTSS showed significant improvement from baseline, 7th week and 8th week onwards in AST group and methotrexate group respectively. Group comparison showed significant improvement 4th week onwards.</p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Autologous serum therapy as well as methotrexate both proved effective in chronic urticaria patients. On follow-up improvement is sustained for at least 3-4 months after the last injection in case of AST. </p>