Serum Autologous Skin Test in Children with Chronic Urticaria: Is it Related to The Severity of The Disease?

INTRODUCTION: We aimed to contribute to the limited number of studies that investigated the association between autologous serum test positivity and the severity of childhood chronic spontaneous urticaria. MATERIALS and METHODS: Eighty-seven pediatric patients who underwent autologous serum test for chronic spontaneous urticaria were retrospectively investigated. Urticaria severity was assessed according to urticaria activity score. RESULTS: In 19 of our patients (21.83%), the autologous serum test was positive. When clinical and laboratory parameters of patients with positive and negative autologous serum test are evaluated; age, sex, onset of symptoms, total IgE and cosinophil (%) were not statistically significant. Patients with positive autologous serum test had significantly higher urticaria activity scores (p 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In our study, urticaria activity score was found higher in patients with autologous serum test positive. The choice of treatment for patients with a positive autologous serum test will ensure that symptoms and the quality of life of the patients will be improved faster if they are taken into consideration that the disease may be more severe.