IJSR International Journal of Scientific Research 2277 - 8179 Indian Society for Health and Advanced Research ijsr-6-5-10892 Original Research Paper A STUDY ON ETIOLOGICAL SPECTRUM OF CHRONIC URTICARIA IN AN URBAN CITY HOSPITAL D Dr. Faizal M Dr. May 2017 6 5 01 02 ABSTRACT

 Background: Urticaria is one of the most commonly encountered skin diseases which affect 15%–20% of the population once or more during life time. It is a heterogeneous group of disorder with a wide range of multifactorial etiology. In this study, we tried to find out the etiological spectrum of chronic urticaria in an urban city hospital.   Materials and Methods: This study is a cross sectional study which included 150 patients with urticaria who attended the skin outpatient department. A detailed history taking and complete physical examination was done for all these patients and the observations were tabulated.   Results: 150 cases of chronic urticaria were studied. 85 were female and 65 were male. The mean age was 35.5 years. The duration of chronic urticaria ranged from 2 months to 20 years. The mean duration of disease was significantly higher among females (mean duration of disease in female is 27.6 and male is 17.20).  In the present study, 33 patients (22%) gave a personal history of atopy. One patient (0.7%) was found to have associated systemic disease (thyroid autoimmunity). 71 patients were subjected to ASST of which 50 of them were tested negative and 21(30%) of them were tested positive.  In the study group, 31(43.7%) were males and 40(56.3%) were females.