Role of Helicobacter pylori Eradication in Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis.

Abstract

ObjectiveTo investigate the role of Helicobacter pylori (HP) eradication in chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) treatment.MethodsRetrospective analysis was performed on the clinical data of 522 patients with CSU who underwent a HP breath test in Hangzhou Third People’s Hospital between January 2018 and December 2019. The CSU-HP(+) group consisted of patients with CSU and HP infection, who were treated with antihistamines combined with HP eradication therapy. The CSU-HP(-) group consisted of patients with CSU alone, who were treated with antihistamines. Propensity score matching (PSM) analysis, using the nearest neighbor matching method on a 1:1 basis, was performed to ensure the characteristics of the CSU-HP(+) and CSU-HP(-) groups were similar. Factors, including age, gender, white blood cells, red blood cells, platelets, alanine transaminase, creatinine, immunoglobulin E, and pre-treatment urticaria activity score (UAS), were matched to obtain a balanced cohort of patients in each group. Therapeutic effects were compared after matching. t-tests, Χ2 test, and McNemar’s test were used for comparison between the two groups before and after matching.ResultsPatients in the CSU-HP(+) group reported significantly more gastrointestinal symptoms than those in the CSU-HP(-) group. UAS scores in the second week of treatment were significantly different between the two groups. After 3 months, the recurrence rate in the CSU-HP(+) group was lower than in the CSU-HP(-) group.ConclusionEradication of HP infection in patients with CSU helps relieve gastrointestinal symptoms, improves the therapeutic effect of CSU within 2 weeks, and reduces the recurrence rate 3 months after treatment.