Clinical features of elderly chronic urticaria

Abstract

Background/AimsChronic urticaria (CU) is defined as itchy wheals lasting 6 weeks or more. As the aged population increases worldwide, it is essential to identify the specific features of this disease in the elderly population.MethodsWe investigated the prevalence and clinical features of CU in elderly patients. Medical records of 837 CU patients from the outpatient Allergy Clinic of Ajou University Hospital, Korea were analyzed retrospectively. Patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria according to the EAACI/GA2LEN/EDF/WAO guidelines were included. Patients older than 60 years were defined as elderly.ResultsOf the 837 patients, 37 (4.5%) were elderly. In elderly versus nonelderly CU patients, the prevalence of atopic dermatitis (AD) was significantly higher (37.8% vs. 21.7%, respectively; p = 0.022), while that of aspirin intolerance was lower (18.9% vs. 43.6%, respectively; p = 0.003) in terms of comorbid conditions. The prevalences of serum specific immunoglobulin E antibodies to staphylococcal enterotoxin A and staphylococcal enterotoxin B were considerably higher in elderly CU patients with AD than in those without AD (37.5% vs. 0%, respectively).ConclusionsElderly patients with CU had a higher prevalence of AD. Therefore, there is a need to recognize the existence of AD in elderly CU patients.

H1‐antihistamine‐refractory chronic spontaneous urticaria: it's worse than we thought – first results of the multicenter real‐life AWARE study

“…This study indicates that approximately 25% of H1‐antihistamine‐refractory CSU patients have comorbid CIndU. Consistent with previous publications, other comorbidities in this patient population included asthma, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, allergies, and autoimmune diseases .…”

Comorbidity of chronic spontaneous urticaria and autoimmune thyroid diseases: A systematic review

“…In contrast, some studies showed that patients with CSU had significantly higher levels of IgG antithyroid AAbs compared to patients with acute and chronic inducible urticaria. The difference in IgG antithyroid AAb levels was not statistically significant when CSU patients with atopic diseases were compared to nonatopic CSU patients . However, another study showed higher rates of elevated IgG antithyroid AAbs in children with CSU and atopy …”

Clinical features of chronic urticaria in aging population

“…Ga-Young Ban et al 6 (N=37) 12.0 NA NA There were no statistically significant differences of the abnormal laboratory findings between both groups. However, aging patients with CU tended to have higher percentages of positive ASST, positive anti-thyroglobulin antibodies and positive anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies in comparison with non-aging patients with CU.…”

“…Although there were sparse data focused on the clinical and laboratory characteristics of CSU in the aging population, data regarding CSU in 92 Israeli and 37 Korean geriatric patients have been reported by Magen et al and Ga-Young Ban et al, respectively. 5,6 We summarized and compared the data from their studies with ours, as shown in Table 4. The prevalence of CSU in aging Asian patients seemed to be lower than in aging Caucasian patients.…”

“…2 Aging and non-aging patients can have differences in the clinical manifestations of several diseases such as psoriasis, 3 herpes zoster, 4 and urticaria. 5,6 Polypharmacy (multiple medication usages and/or the administration of more clinically indicated medications) 7 and the aging process may interfere with pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, resulting in different responses to treatments. 8 Chronic urticaria (CU) is a common skin disease characterized by the presence of itchy wheals with or without angioedema lasting for at least six weeks.…”