New European urticaria guideline. What’s new?
Urticaria is a disease which symptoms are caused by the activation and degranulation of the mast cells (MC). Urticaria and angioedema persisting for more than 6 weeks is concerning to be the chronic form of the disease (CU). Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is the most common subtype of CU and has a great negative impact on all aspects of the patient’s life, causing a decreasing a quality of life, as a burden for a health system and society as a whole. In the present version of the conciliatory document diagnostic approaches in CSU have three goals: to make a differential diagnosis; to evaluate an activity of the disease, its control and the impact on the patient’s life; to identify the triggers of exacerbation or, if possible, the causes of a disease. A basic assessment of disease activity (UAS, AAS), quality of life (CU-Q2oL, AE-QoL) and disease activity control (UCT) are necessary for decisionmaking in the treatment of patients with CSU, better understanding of the disease burden, and documentation improvement and standardization. The aim of a treatment of patients with CSU is the complete control of the symptoms. A therapy should be performed by steps. On the first step a 2nd generation of Hj-antihistamines in standard doses has to be applied. In case of unresponsiveness a dose step-up up to 4 times is recommended, at the third step omalizumab is advised, at the fourth step (inefficiency of omalizumab) - cyclosporine. At any step, it is possible to use a short term course of glucocorticosteroids to set back an exacerbation.