Chronic urticaria: aetiology, management and current and future treatment options.

Chronic urticaria is a common condition that can be very disabling when severe. A cause for chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU) is only infrequently identified. Potential causes include reactions to food and drugs, infections (rarely) and, apart from an increased incidence of thyroid disease, uncomplicated urticaria is not usually associated with underlying systemic disease or malignancy.

Laboratory tests and identified diagnoses in patients with physical and chronic urticaria and angioedema: A systematic review.

Background: The value of laboratory tests in chronic urticaria is still controversial.

Objective: Our aim was to assess this value in clinical studies, and to identify factors explaining the variation in the number of identified causes.

Methods: A total of 4 electronic databases were searched, and a manual literature search was performed.

Evaluation of a clinical guideline for the diagnoses of physical and chronic urticaria and angioedema.

In this retrospective study, the feasibility and implementation of a clinical guideline was evaluated in 130 consecutive patients with chronic urticaria. We analysed how often a questionnaire was used, how often routine laboratory tests were performed and on what information (history-taking, detailed questionnaire, laboratory or provocation tests) the diagnosis was made. In this validation sample, the number of identified diagnoses was compared with the number of identified diagnoses of a prospective study previously performed in the same hospital.