BACKGROUND Treatments for patients with chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU)chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) who were unresponsive to antihistamines include oral corticosteroids (OCS). Risks of OCS-related side effects in these patients have not been described quantitatively. OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship between OCS use and the risk of developing side effects possibly attributab...

A substantial proportion of patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) are refractory to antihistamines. However, identifying the subpopulation whose urticaria is not completely controlled by antihistamines remains difficult. The response of autologous serum skin test (ASST), a clinical test for the detection of basophil histamine-releasing activity upon autoantibodies or autoreactive st...

A fusion protein designated CSU-F36 was constructed that consisted of acylated Rv1411, a potent Toll-like receptor-2 agonist, fused to ESAT-6, a well-characterized immunogenic protein from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The CSU-F36 fusion protein strongly induced interleukin 12 secretion from macrophages and induced the increased accumulation of CD4 T cells capable of secreting gamma interferon in...

Summary Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a cluster of risk factors for cardiovascular disease and is considered a chronic low-level systemic inflammatory condition. Recent preliminary findings have shown an increased prevalence of MS among patients with chronic urticaria (CU) as compared to controls, with a particularly higher prevalence detected in patients with uncontrolled CU. Chronic spontaneous ...

Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), defined as the occurrence of spontaneous wheals for more than six weeks, has been associated with autoimmune diseases. Herein, we report the unusual association of CSU, Graves' disease, and premature ovarian failure. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) studies were performed. A 36-year-old woman presented symptoms and signs of hyperthyroidism for three months. In ...

BACKGROUND Omalizumab is indicated to treat chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) refractory to antihistamines. We aim to describe the experience of our department in the treatment of CSU with omalizumab. MATERIALS AND METHODS Retrospective review of the clinical records of patients. RESULTS Six patients (5 females, median age 33 years) treated with omalizumab for a median of 17.5 months were...

Jose D. Salas is a professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering at Colorado State University (CSU). He received BS and civil engineering degrees from the National University of Engineering of Lima, Perú; MSc degree in hydraulics; and PhD degree in hydrology and water resources from CSU. At CSU, he supervised (main advisor) 42 MSc and 37 PhD students. Dr. Salas has been consultant o...

BACKGROUND Chronic spontaneous/idiopathic urticaria (CSU/CIU) has substantial detrimental effects on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) with an effect comparable to or worse than many other skin diseases. OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of omalizumab on CSU patients' HRQoL, measured by the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) in three phase III studies ASTERIA I, ASTERIA II and GLACIAL. ...