Response to oral cyclosporine therapy and high sensitivity-CRP level in chronic idiopathic urticaria

Background Chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU) is often resistant to common treatment of uriticaria. Objective To find out clinical and laboratory findings affecting the response of oral cyclosporine therapy in CIU. Subjects and methods The response of oral cyclosporine therapy in 15 patients with CIU (male : female = 5 : 10, age 16-60 years old, mean 40.0 years old) was studied. Cyclosporine trough level was measured with an enzyme-multiplied immunoassay, and high sensitivity-CRP was measured with a nephelometric assay. The relation between high sensitivity-CRP level and clinical and laboratory findings in CIU was also studied. Results All the 15 CIU patients responded to oral cyclosporine therapy. High sensitivity-CRP levels before the start of therapy were elevated in nine of 15 CIU patients. The distributions of treatment duration and basophile leukocytes counts in elevated high sensitivity-CRP patients (8.7 +/- 1.3 months, 0.20 +/- 0.05%) were significantly shorter and elevated than those in patients showing no elevation (22.7 +/- 1.7 months, 0.40 +/- 0.05%) (P < 0.05, P < 0.05), respectively. No other clinical and laboratory findings between patients with elevated and not elevated high sensitivity-CRP showed any significant differences. Conclusion Chronic idiopathic urticaria patients with elevated high sensitivity-CRP showed good response to oral cyclosporine therapy.