[Immunologic parameters in chronic urticaria]

Urticaria and angioedema are common disorders that affect approximately 1/5 of the population at some stage in their lives. Although the clinical diagnosis of this disorder is made without difficulty, its etiology and pathogenesis remain obscure. Extensive clinical studies and the application of different laboratory techniques seldom manage to detect the etiology of chronic urticaria or determine its supposed pathogenic mechanism. Thus, a large number of causal agents have been held responsible for the symptoms of chronic urticaria and/or chronic urticaria and angioedema and for the variety of immunologic and nonimmunologic factors involved in its pathogenesis. The controversial laboratory findings in this type of patients prompted us to undertake this study on 48 subjects with chronic urticaria and/or angioedema. We studied the levels of serum immunoglobulins (IgG, IgA, IgM and IgE), the haemolytic activity of the complement (CH50), the levels of the complement components (C1 inhibitor, C3 and C4), the possible presence of circulating immune complexes and the percentages of the T lymphoid subpopulations (using OKT3, OKT4 and OKT8 markers) and the B population. The results obtained showed an alteration of the complement (CH50) and of some of its components (C3 and C4) as well as of the cytotoxic/suppressor lymphocyte subpopulation (OKT8).