Association between Chronic Urticaria andHelicobacter pyloriInfection among Patients Attending a Tertiary Hospital in Tanzania

Background. Chronic urticaria (CU) is a common skin disease; however, its etiology is rarely recognized. Infection due toHelicobacter pylori(H.pylori) has been shown in some studies to play a significant role in the pathogenesis of CU.Objective. This study was conducted to determine the association between CU andH.pyloriinfection among patients attending the Regional Dermatology Training Center, Northern Tanzania, from October 2018 to April 2019.Methodology. A matched case-control study that included 55 cases and 55 controls matched by age and sex was conducted. Data were collected through direct interviews, and the results of laboratory investigations were recorded in the extraction sheet. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test was used to detectH.pyloriantigen in the stool samples. Conditional logistic regression was used to measure the association between CU andH.pylori.Results. The total number of participants in this study was 110 patients (55 cases and 55 controls), whereby the median age was 31 (IQR 27-45) among controls versus 34 (IQR: 22-46) years among the cases. Both cases and controls had the same number of females and males. There was no significant association between CU and baseline characteristics of the participants. There was an association between CU andH.pyloriinfection, such that subjects with CU had a higher number of positiveH.pyloritest (15/55 = 27%) versus controls (6/55 = 10.1%) (p=0.0225). The adjusted odds of CU among patients who were positive forH.pyloriwere sixfolds higher (OR = 6.9; CI: 1.3-36.2;p=0.021) than those of patients who were negative forH. pylori.Conclusion.There was a strong and significant association between CU andH.pyloriinfection. We recommend investigating forH.pyloriin all cases of CU and conducting further trials onH.pylorieradication.