Knowledge of the clinical course of chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) remains unclear. The purpose of our study was to investigate the clinical course of CSU in the Korean adult population. Each patient in the CSU group who was defined by disease codes between 2003 and 2007 was tracked whether he or she went into remission or not until 2013. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was carried out to a...

BACKGROUND In chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) mast cell activation together with inflammatory changes in the skin are well documented and may play an important role in mechanisms of tissue oedema. OBJECTIVES To confirm and extend these observations by measuring microvascular markers, leucocytes and mast cell numbers in lesional and uninvolved skin and to compare findings with a control gr...

BACKGROUND Chronic idiopathic or spontaneous urticaria (CIU/CSU) impairs patients' quality of life, and updated information on disease prevalence, treatment patterns, and disease burden is lacking. OBJECTIVES We aimed to estimate these figures in a large US real-world claims database via a validated algorithm. METHODS In this retrospective cross-sectional cohort study, we identified patient...

Vitamin D plays an important role in the immune system; decreased serum vitamin D concentrations have been linked to dysregulated immune function. Low vitamin D status is probably associated with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU). We evaluated the prevalence of low vitamin D status, and the clinical response and quality of life following vitamin D supplementation, in a prospective case-contro...

Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is defined as the presence of urticaria with daily or almost daily symptoms for 6 weeks or more. CSU affects 0.1%-0.8% of the population. Its pathogenesis involves autoimmunity, abnormalities in signal transduction, and the action of histamine on H1 receptors. Investigation of CSU should be guided by a thorough history and physical examination. A concise labo...

Background and Study Aims. The association between Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) and chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) remains controversial. This study explored the role of H. pylori in CSU among different virulent genotypes patients. Patients and Methods. Patients infected by H. pylori were sorted into two groups as group A (with CSU) and group B (without CSU). The tissue materials were t...

MOTIVATION New software has been designed to assist the molecular biologist in understanding the structural consequences of modifying a ligand and/or protein. RESULTS Tools are described for the analysis of ligand-protein contacts (LPC software) and contacts of structural units (CSU software) such as helices, sheets, strands and residues. Our approach is based on a detailed analysis of intera...

Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is a disease with significant morbidity and relative prevalence that has important effects on the quality of life (QoL) of those who suffer from it. Omalizumab is a recombinant humanized anti-immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibody that binds to the Cε3 domain of the IgE heavy chain and prevents it from binding to its high-affinity receptor FcεRI. It has been largely...

The electronic records of 398 patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) who had had a serum basophil histamine release assay (BHRA) performed as a marker of functional autoantibodies were audited. The BHRA was positive in 105 patients (26.4%). Fifty eight were treated with ciclosporin because they were H1 anti-histamine unresponsive. CSU patients with a positive BHRA were more likely to...

Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is a very common skin condition that causes considerable suffering and is often poorly responsive to drug treatment regimens. Most clinicians accept that multiple factors play a role in the aetiology of CSU, but there is a widespread reluctance to accept a significant role for 'mindbody' factors, despite a large number of clinical reports and studies over man...