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Urticaria and Autoimmunity: Where Are We Now?

  • ALLERGIC SKIN DISEASES (L FONACIER, SECTION EDITOR)
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Abstract

There is considerable debate whether chronic urticaria is an autoimmune disease or whether its features suggestive of autoimmunity are epiphenomena. A plethora of circumstantial evidence suggests that chronic urticaria is an autoimmune disease, but criteria to establish autoimmunity require direct proof and indirect evidence, and these are lacking in chronic urticaria. Current approaches to assessing for autoimmunity in vivo via the autologous serum skin test, and in vitro via either basophil histamine release or the basophil activation test are widely utilized, but the results of these tests have limited impact on prediction of the clinical course and efficacy of treatments. Recent guidelines for diagnosing autoimmune urticaria have been proposed, but further investigation is needed.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Conflict of Interest

Stephen C. Dreskin has served on the American Board for Allergy and Clinical Immunology; has served as a consultant for the Clinical and Safety Assessment (CISA) Network (administered by Vanderbilt University); has served as a member on the medical expert panel for vaccine review for Pfizer; has served as a member of the medical expert panel on the Division of Vaccine Injury Compensation (DVIC) for the Department of Health and Human Services; has provided expert testimony on occasional medicolegal cases; has received grant support from the National Institutes of Health, Genentech, and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology; has received honoraria for grant review activities from the National Institutes of Health; and has patents pending on fructose and food allergy and a diagnostic test for peanut allergy.

Jenny M. Stitt declares that she has no conflict of interest.

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  1. Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, University of Colorado Denver, Campus Box B164, Research Complex 2, Room 10002, 2700 E. 19th Ave., Aurora, CO, 80045, USA

    Jenny M. Stitt & Stephen C. Dreskin

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Correspondence to Stephen C. Dreskin.

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Stitt, J.M., Dreskin, S.C. Urticaria and Autoimmunity: Where Are We Now?. Curr Allergy Asthma Rep 13, 555–562 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11882-013-0366-8

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