A study of autologous serum skin test and autologous serum therapy in chronic urticaria

Abstract

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Chronic urticaria (CU) is a vexing problem and patients suffer from the morbidity that arise from irritable itch and wheals and are also subjected to a huge antihistamine pill burden. A subset of patients with CU may have an autoimmune basis for their condition, as shown by a positive skin test to ASST. The objective of the study was to compare efficacy of AST in ASST positive and negative patients and its impact on dermatology life quality index (DLQI) in patients, before and after AST.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> A prospective, interventional study was conducted in the Department of dermatology (Skin) OPD of our institute from October 2016 to October 2017. Fifty patients were selected randomly and antihistaminics were withdrawn before ASST. Test was performed in all patients and AST was given for 9 weeks in both (ASST positive & negative) groups, along with tablet levocetrizine on demand basis and followed for 4 weeks after completion of 9 weeks of therapy. Total severity score (TSS), urticaria activity score (UAS), dermatologic life quality index (DLQI) were used as primary effective parameters and were recorded at baseline and weekly after each injections of AST.<strong></strong></p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> UAS and TSS showed significant improvement (>50%) after 5th week in both group patients. DLQI showed higher improvement in ASST positive patients.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> We found significant improvement in ASST positive and ASST negative patients but ASST positive patients required more time to experience the benefit of AST.</p><p class="abstract"> </p>