A Clinical Study of Urticarial Dermatitis

Choi, Myoung Soon; Yun, Sook Jung; Lee, Jee Bum; Kim, Seong Jin; Won, Young Ho; Lee, Seung Chul

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Urticarial dermatitis is not a commonly used term but may be a useful term representing clinical and histological features as a subset of the dermal hypersensitivity reaction pattern. However, there have been no previous clinical studies on urticarial dermatitis in Korea.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics, courses, and responses to various treatments in patients with urticarial dermatitis.
METHODS
From January 2007 to February 2009, a total of 24 Korean patients who were diagnosed with urticarial dermatitis by clinical and histological criteria were involved in this study. Retrospective analysis using their medical records and the routine blood tests including IgE was performed.
RESULTS
Men (n=19) were involved more predominantly than women (n=5). The mean age of the patients was 49.4 years and the mean duration of the disease was 21.1 months. The skin lesion involved the trunk most commonly and spread throughout the entire body, particulary to the proximal part of the extremities. An abnormally elevated IgE level (mean 819.7 mg/dl) and eosinophil count (mean 7.3%) were observed in 12 patients and 9 patients, respectively. Combination therapy of an oral antihistamine agent and topical steroids was mostly not effective. The skin lesions and symptoms were improved transiently by low-dose corticosteroid therapy, dapsone, and narrow-band UVB (NBUVB) phototherapy, but relapsed or aggravated shortly after cessation of treatment or reduction of drug dosage.
CONCLUSION
Urticarial dermatitis is mostly chronic with a waxing and waning disease course. The administration of dapsone or NBUVB phototherapy are additional therapeutic options to oral corticosteroids in the treatment of urticarial dermatitis.