Autologus Serum Therapy Efficacy as Adjunctive Treatment to Antihistaminics in Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria Patients.

Background: Chronic urticarial patients suffer from recurrent wheals which are severely itching for more than 6 weeks. The symptoms are more in auto-reactive urticaria (arCU) where auto-antibodies in blood flares-up the condition.
Autologus serum skin test (ASST) is regarded of a great value in the primary assessment of patients' auto reactivity. Autologous serum therapy (AST) is a promising treatment modality for CSU patients with positive ASST by inducing desensitization to the pro-inflammatory mediators expressed in their blood.
Aim of the work: Improvement of chronic urticarial symptoms with a therapeutic option that is cheaper, safer and less risky than standard treatment options.
Patients and methods: Single-blind randomized controlled clinical trial study was done on 48 CU patients (+ASST) and randomized into 2 groups; 24patients in cases group on anti-histamines will receive 9 weekly injections of AST and another 24 patients in control group will receive antihistamines alone for 9 weeks. We compared the urticarial activity score-7 of both groups at baseline, fourth week, ninth week of treatment and at twelfth week of follow up after treatment to evaluate the efficacy of addition of AST to conventional treatment with antihistamines.
Results: The mean of UAS-7 was decreased in both treatment groups throughout the twelve weeks of treatment and follow up but the UAS-7 showed significant decrease in the cases group more than that of the control group from the fourth week onwards as P< 0.05.
Conclusion: In patients with arCU, AST is a useful adjunct to antihistamines which improves the urticarial symptoms.