Hormonal evaluation and autoimmune background in pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy

There is little insight into the pathogenesis of most of the dermatoses specifically associated with pregnancy. We evaluated the hormonal profile and the autoimmune background in 11 pregnant women with pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy. No statistically significant difference was found between the serum levels of the beta-subunit of human chorionic gonadotropin, estradiol, cortisol, and urinary estriol of the patients and gestational age-matched control subjects. No autoantibodies were found in the patients' group. We conclude that patients with pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy have no hormonal alterations when compared with normal pregnant women and that no known major autoimmune background plays a part in the pathogenesis of the disease.