TY - JOUR
T1 - Food-additive-induced urticaria
T2 - A survey of 838 patients with recurrent chronic idiopathic urticaria
AU - Di Lorenzo, Gabriele
AU - Pacor, Maria Luisa
AU - Mansueto, Pasquale
AU - Martinelli, Nicola
AU - Esposito-Pellitteri, Maria
AU - Lo Bianco, Claudia
AU - Ditta, Vito
AU - Leto-Barone, Maria Stefania
AU - Napoli, Nicola
AU - Di Fede, Gaetana
AU - Rini, Giovambattista
AU - Corrocher, Roberto
PY - 2005/11
Y1 - 2005/11
N2 - Background: Recurrent chronic idiopathic urticaria (RCIU) is a common skin condition that affects 0.1-3% of the population in the USA and Europe and accounts for nearly 75% of all 'ordinary' chronic urticaria (CU) cases. Methods: We studied 838 consecutive patients with RCIU referred to hospital between 1998 and 2003. Patients with known causes of CU were excluded. Clinical history, physical examination, and symptom diaries were evaluated during two periods, a diet-free period (1 week) and a food-additive-free diet (FAFD) period (4 weeks), respectively, and two double-blind placebo-controlled (DBPC) challenges of six food additives were administered. The first DBPC challenge included a mixture of the six food additives (DBPC mixed) given to all patients. The second DBPC challenge comprised the single food additives, administered at increasing doses (DBPC single) to patients with a positive DBPC mixed test and 105 patients with a negative DBPC mixed test, as a control. Results: The DBPC mixed challenge was positive in 116 patients. None of the 105 control patients had a positive DBPC single test. Only 31 DBPC single tests were positive in patients with positive DBPC mixed challenge. Twenty-four of the 116 patients showing a positive DBPC mixed challenge also had a positive DBPC single result. Conclusions: Our results confirmed that food additive hypersensitivity reactions occurred in few RCIU patients using DBPC single challenge. The combination of the results of FAFD and DBPC mixed challenge seems to be of considerable practical interest for allergists, internists and dermatologists, rather than the data of clinical history and the results of DBPC single challenge, in patients with RCIU.
AB - Background: Recurrent chronic idiopathic urticaria (RCIU) is a common skin condition that affects 0.1-3% of the population in the USA and Europe and accounts for nearly 75% of all 'ordinary' chronic urticaria (CU) cases. Methods: We studied 838 consecutive patients with RCIU referred to hospital between 1998 and 2003. Patients with known causes of CU were excluded. Clinical history, physical examination, and symptom diaries were evaluated during two periods, a diet-free period (1 week) and a food-additive-free diet (FAFD) period (4 weeks), respectively, and two double-blind placebo-controlled (DBPC) challenges of six food additives were administered. The first DBPC challenge included a mixture of the six food additives (DBPC mixed) given to all patients. The second DBPC challenge comprised the single food additives, administered at increasing doses (DBPC single) to patients with a positive DBPC mixed test and 105 patients with a negative DBPC mixed test, as a control. Results: The DBPC mixed challenge was positive in 116 patients. None of the 105 control patients had a positive DBPC single test. Only 31 DBPC single tests were positive in patients with positive DBPC mixed challenge. Twenty-four of the 116 patients showing a positive DBPC mixed challenge also had a positive DBPC single result. Conclusions: Our results confirmed that food additive hypersensitivity reactions occurred in few RCIU patients using DBPC single challenge. The combination of the results of FAFD and DBPC mixed challenge seems to be of considerable practical interest for allergists, internists and dermatologists, rather than the data of clinical history and the results of DBPC single challenge, in patients with RCIU.
KW - Diet
KW - Double-blind placebo-controlled challenge
KW - Food additives
KW - Urticaria
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=27544503028&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=27544503028&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1159/000088724
DO - 10.1159/000088724
M3 - Article
C2 - 16215324
AN - SCOPUS:27544503028
VL - 138
SP - 235
EP - 242
JO - International Archives of Allergy and Immunology
JF - International Archives of Allergy and Immunology
SN - 1018-2438
IS - 3
ER -