[Chronic urticaria and allergy to Acari. Experience with a specific desensitization therapy]

Eighty-five patients affected by chronic urticaria (45 females and 40 males) were submitted to intradermal tests with house and storage mites in order to evaluate a possible sensitization to these allergens. The same allergological tests were performed in an 80-subject control group. The results showed immediate cutaneous reactivity to one or more mites in 40 patients (47%) while only 6 positivities (7.5%) were found in the control group. 27 patients, out of the 40 allergic to mites, were submitted to specific desensitizing therapy. 6 of them showed a complete recovery, 20 good results and only 1 slight improvement of clinical manifestations. These data allow us to hypothesize that the allergy to mite allergens is an important etiopathogenic factor in several chronic so called "idiopathic" urticarias.