Prevalence of Chronic Inducible Urticaria in Elderly Patients.

Maddalena Napolitano,Cataldo Patruno,Gabriella Fabbrocini,Luca Stingeni

doi:10.3390/jcm10020247

Abstract

Background: No data currently exist regarding the epidemiology of chronic inducible urticarias (CIndUs) in the ≥65-year-old population. Objective: The study aimed to determine the prevalence of CIndUs among elderly patients affected by chronic urticaria (CU). Methods: The medical records of all patients referred to us with a diagnosis of CU from January 2008 to September 2020 were retrospectively reviewed, and the patients with CIndUs were identified. The subjects aged 65 years or above were included in the study. Results: The number of patients aged 65 years or above was 153 out of 1970 subjects affected by CU (7.77%; 92 females (60.13%); mean age 70.96 ± 4.22). Out of 153, 26 patients (16.99%; 20 females (76.9%); mean age 71.23 ± 2.6 years) were diagnosed with CIndUs. Most subjects (25/26; 96.15%) suffered from physical urticarias. Symptomatic dermographism was the most frequent, affecting 65.38% (17/26) of our patients, followed by cold urticaria (6/26 (23.08%) cases). Conclusion: Our data seem to indicate that CIndUs may also affect the elderly, although it occurs less frequently in aging patients than in lower age groups.

Highlights

Chronic urticaria (CU) is characterized by recurrent wheals and/or angioedema lasting for more than six weeks [1]
CU can be classified as chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) in the absence of an identifiable trigger and as chronic inducible urticarias (CIndUs), when wheal or angioedema development can be triggered through exposure to a specific stimulus [4]
451/1970 (22.89%) patients, with physical urticarias (PUs) being diagnosed in 402/451 (89.14%) of the CIndUs patients and nonphysical urticarias (NPUs) in the other 49/451 (10.42%) subjects

Summary

Introduction

Chronic urticaria (CU) is characterized by recurrent wheals and/or angioedema lasting for more than six weeks [1]. It is a common disease that significantly affects the quality of life of patients [1,2]. The prevalence of CU in adults is estimated at 0.5% to 5%, while it affects 0.1% to 3% of children [3,4,5]. CU can be classified as chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) in the absence of an identifiable trigger and as chronic inducible urticarias (CIndUs), when wheal or angioedema development can be triggered through exposure to a specific stimulus [4]. CIndUs can be divided into two groups: physical urticarias (PUs) and nonphysical urticarias (NPUs) (Table 1) [6,7]. PUs are classified according to the physical trigger and include symptomatic dermographism, cold or heat urticarias, delayed pressure urticaria, solar urticaria, and vibratory angioedema. In the case of contact urticaria, wheals appear after skin contact with chemicals, while aquagenic urticaria is induced by an exposition to water [6]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion