Epidemiology of chronic inducible urticaria in Moscow

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Chronic inducible urticaria is a group of diseases that is characterized by the development of wheals, angioedema, or both in response to specific triggers for 6 weeks. According to global scientific international literature, the occurrence of chronic inducible urticaria is 0.5% in the general population and approximately 20%30% in all chronic urticarias. The prevalence of chronic inducible urticaria has no statistical data in the Russian Federation. AIM: This study aimed to evaluate the region-specific epidemiology of different forms of chronic inducible urticaria. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The analysis is based on the number of unique cases extracted from the medical care records in the adults segment of the digital platform United medical information and analytical system (UMIAS) (outpatient forms) in Moscow from 2017 to 2021, including keyword search. RESULTS: This study indicated that the prevalence of chronic inducible urticaria in Moscow is correlated with published global epidemiological data. Among patients with chronic inducible urticarial, females predominate (74.2%), and the median age was 43.8 years (37 years in males and 46.4 in females). The most common form in all verified cases of chronic inducible urticaria is symptomatic dermographism (11.12%), followed by contact urticaria (5.36%), cholinergic urticaria (2.28%), cold urticaria (1.92%), delayed pressure urticaria (0.36%), vibratory urticaria (0.11%), aquagenic urticaria (0.1%), and heat urticaria (0.08%). Chronic inducible urticaria rates in Moscow are high, which increase as in global practice. This research has limitations, including the lack of ubiquitous implementation of standard protocols of provocation testing in outpatient units and the low percentage of using validated questionnaires in the routine management of patients with chronic inducible urticaria. CONCLUSIONS: Further studies dedicated to this topic are greatly necessary to answer a wide spectrum of questions, including the diagnosis process and evaluation of the severity of chronic inducible urticaria, comorbid conditions, and optimization of the treatment protocols adapted for the particular phenotype.