Effect of Puberty, Menstruation, Pregnancy, Lactation, and Menopause on Chronic Urticaria Activity.

Background: Chronic urticaria (CU) is a systemic disorder which is characterized by recurrent wheals and/or angioedema lasting more than 6 weeks. Sex hormones have been suggested to play a role in CU pathogenesis, however, their clinical implications have not been adequately described in the literature.

Objective: To determine whether conditions that change sex hormone levels such as puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and menopause affect the course of CU.

Differences between adult and pediatric chronic spontaneous urticaria from a cohort of 751 patients: Clinical features, associated conditions and indicators of treatment response.

Background: Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is a common disease both in the pediatric and in the adult population. However, there are differences between the two patient populations with respect to etiological factors, comorbidities, and treatment responses. Our aim was to determine differences between pediatric and adult CSU in terms of clinical characteristics, laboratory parameters, comorbidities, response to treatment, and indicators of response.

Assessment of disease activity and quality of life in patients with recurrent bradykinin-mediated versus mast cell-mediated angioedema.

Objective: Recurrent Angioedema (RAE) is characterized by sudden swelling of mucosal surfaces or deep dermis and is either mast cell-(MMAE) or bradykinin-mediated (BMAE). How patients with BMAE and MMAE differ in terms of disease activity and impact remains largely unknown. Here, we determined validity, reliability, and sensitivity to change of Turkish versions of angioedema activity score (AAS) and quality of life questionnaire (AE-QoL) and used both instruments to investigate and compare patients with BMAE and MMAE.

Omalizumab as a Succesfull Therapy in Normocomplementemic Urticarial Vasculitis: A Series of Four Patients and Review of the Literature.

Urticarial vasculitis is an eruption characterized by inflamed itchy or painful red papules or plaques that resemble urticaria but last longer than 24 hours and heal with residual pigmentation or purpura. Histopathologically, urticarial vasculitis presents as leukocytoclastic vasculitis with perivascular infiltrate and fibrin deposits. The treatment options are oral antihistamines, oral corticosteroids, dapsone, colchicine and hydroxychloroquine.

Validation of the Turkish version of the Urticaria Control Test: Correlation with other tools and comparison between spontaneous and inducible chronic urticaria.

Background: The urticaria control test (UCT) is a questionnaire designed to determine if chronic urticaria (CU) is controlled or not and to aid therapeutic decision-making. It collects retrospective information about the symptoms and quality of life impairment over the last 4 weeks. The current study aimed to investigate the validity, reliability and sensitivity to change of the Turkish version of the UCT.

Fric Test Revisited: A Suggestion for a New Scoring System and Its Correlation with Urticaria Control Test and Dermatology Life Quality Index.

Background: Fric test is a useful tool for the diagnosis and threshold testing for symptomatic dermographism. When threshold testing is not available, Urticaria Control Test (UCT) and Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) might be used to assess disease control and quality of life (QoL) impairment, respectively.

Objectives: In this study, we aimed to describe a new scoring system for the Fric test and evaluate the correlations of Fric scores with UCT, DLQI, and other disease activity assessment scores.

Omalizumab Updosing for Better Disease Control in Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria Patients.

The recommended dose of omalizumab for the treatment of chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is 300 mg every 4 weeks, but there is no recommendation for patients who do not benefit from this dose. Our aim is to present the experiences on the use of doses of omalizumab higher than those recommended for CSU patients and to propose a protocol for updosing. This was a retrospective analysis of patients treated with omalizumab for CSU from 2 urticaria centers in Istanbul and Barcelona.

Management of chronic inducible urticaria according to the guidelines: A prospective controlled study.

Background: The recommended treatment approach in chronic inducible urticarias (CIndU) is the same as that for chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU). But there is a lack of controlled trials assessing efficacy of available treatment options.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of treatment algorithm recommended by the guidelines and comparison of treatment responses in CIndU vs CSU.