An approach to urticaria in the elderly patients

The guidelines for the management of urticaria in adults and children have been published in outstanding position papers. By contrast, the onset of urticaria in the elderly has not yet had a clear definition. In order to approach diagnosis and treatment in a population of elderly patients, we have performed an epidemiological study on a population of elderly people observed in the Immuno Allergology Unit in Bari University Hospital. The patients underwent skin prick test for food allergy and laboratory and instrumental tests. From the data it resulted that 49% of cases have had urticaria because of adverse drug reactions (ADRs), 16% of cases were positive to food, while in 21% of cases systemic and metabolic diseases (SMDs) have been diagnosed. If we consider the young controls, urticaria for ADR was present in 48% of cases; however, in 28% it was possible to make the diagnosis of food allergy, 12% cases had a SMD. Our results show that the main cause of urticaria in the elderly is related to drug assumption because of the high number of drugs taken, followed by internal pathologies correlated to the typical immune and metabolic changes of the elderly. Furthermore, from the observation of our data it was possible to give guidelines for the treatment of urticaria in geriatric age.