Questionnaire Analysis of the Prognosis and QOL in Patients with Urticaria at Nagasaki University Hospital

Abstract

We performed an inquiry analysis on patients with urticaria who had been treated at the Department of Dermatology, Nagasaki University to evaluate the prognoses and clinical responses to the treatment. Questionnaires were sent to the patients with acute urticaria (73 cases), chronic urticaria (61 cases), cold urticaria (13 cases), solar urticaria (9 cases), and dermographism (18 cases). Sixty-nine cases with answered letters and 23 cases with unanswered letters were enrolled in this study and the latter were evaluated based on personal clinical records. Eighty per cent of the patients with acute urticaria stated that they were free of urticaria at the time of evaluation while only 32 per cent of chronic urticaria and other types of urticaria stated that they were free of urticaria. Most of the patients with acute urticaria reported that the urticarial attack subsided within one year after the onset of urticaria, while more than 50 per cent of the patients with chronic urticaria still suffered from urticaria more than one year after onset. Most of the patients were treated with oral anti-histamines or anti-allergic drugs and topical ointment. No medications were prescribed in 16-20 per cent of the patients. In addition, several provocating factors were demonstrated in some patients with physical urticaria.