title: Reactivity to autologous serum skin test and clinical features in chronic idiopathic urticaria.
abstract: The autologous-serum skin test (ASST) can cause a wheal-and-flare response in some cases of chronic idiopathic urticaria. We subjected 102 patients affected by chronic idiopathic urticaria to this test and studied some clinical parameters to detect any significant differences between ASST-positive and ASST-negative patients. The only significant difference we noted between the two groups was the incidence of angioedema (P = 0.01). We suggest that the ASST cannot be used alone either to predict the severity of urticaria or to define it as 'autoimmune'.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Clinic, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Chair of Medical Statistics, University of Bari, Italy. e.nettis@allergy.uniba.it
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nettis
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dambra
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: D'Oronzio
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cavallo
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Loria
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fanelli
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ferrannini
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tursi
mesh_terms: D000799:Angioedema / Q000276:immunology; D001323:Autoantibodies; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012882:Skin Tests / Q000379:methods*; D014581:Urticaria / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies