title: Autologous whole blood and autologous serum injections are equally effective as placebo injections in reducing disease activity in patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria: a placebo controlled, randomized, single-blind study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recent demonstration of circulating anti-IgG antibodies towards IgE and its receptor (FcϵRI) has led to an interest in inducing tolerance to circulating histamine-releasing factors with autologous blood injections as a treatment option in chronic spontaneous urticaria (CU). The aim of the study was to assess the efficacy of autologous whole blood (AWB) and autologous serum (AS) injections in patients with CU compared to placebo.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 88 CU patients with (+) autologous serum skin test (ASST) (59) and (-) ASST (29) were randomized into three parallel subgroups and were treated with weekly injections of AWB, AS or placebo for 10 weeks. Clinical assessments included urticaria activity score (UAS) and dermatology life quality index.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In ASST (+) patients, the percentages of patients with >30% improvement in UAS and DLQI were 85% and 90% in AWB group, 65% and 65% in AS group and 79% and 90% in placebo group, respectively. In ASST (-) patients, these figures were 67% and 89% in the AWB group, 80% and 80% in the AS group and 60% and 70% in the placebo group. The intergroup difference for complete subsidence was not statistically significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Even though we could not show a better efficacy than placebo, autohemotherapy resulted in a marked decrease in disease activity and improvement in quality of life scores in CU patients.
authors.affiliation: Goztepe Training and Research Hospital, Department of Dermatology, İstanbul, Turkiye. emekozgur@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Emek
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kocatürk
authors.forename: Selin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aktaş
authors.forename: Zafer
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Türkoğlu
authors.forename: Mukaddes
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kavala
authors.forename: Ilkin
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Zindanci
authors.forename: Melek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koc
authors.forename: Burçe
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Can
authors.forename: Sibel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Südoğan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000888:Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic / Q000097:blood; D001804:Blood Transfusion, Autologous; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007267:Injections; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D044967:Serum / Q000276:immunology; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D012882:Skin Tests; D014581:Urticaria / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000888:Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic; C048844:anti-IgG