title: Interval shifts in basophil measures correlate with disease activity in chronic spontaneous urticaria.
abstract: Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) significantly impacts the quality of life of those affected through symptoms of pruritus and recurrent skin lesions. In active CSU disease, reduced IgE-mediated basophil histamine release (HR) and basopenia are observed. We sought to examine the relationship between interval changes in basophil measures and shifts in patient-reported disease impairment. Simultaneous symptom and basophil evaluations were completed at two sequential study visits, and interval changes in measures were compared between visits for each subject (n = 38). These measures included Skindex-29, current itch and hives scores, total leukocyte histamine content (an indirect measure of blood basophil presence), and basophil HR in response to anti-IgE and formyl-methionine-leucine-phenylalanine. Overall, interval improvements in disease measures in CSU subjects were associated with increased basophil numbers (total leukocyte histamine content) and IgE-mediated HR. This suggests these measures are potential biomarkers for CSU disease improvement and further implicates a role for basophils in CSU.
authors: Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors: E T
authors: ET
authors: Oliver
authors: P M
authors: PM
authors: Sterba
authors: S S
authors: SS
authors: Saini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001491:Basophils / Q000276:immunology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D014581:Urticaria / Q000276:immunology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: basophil; urticaria