The level of anti-thyroperoxidase antibodies in chronic urticaria patients

Chronic urticaria is a skin disorder characterized by swollen pruritic plaques and papules last long at least for 6-weeks. The aim of this study was to determine the anti-TPO level in patients diagnosed with chronic urticaria, resistant to conventional treatments in order to test the possibility of thyroid hormone replacement with the aim of accelerating healing process.

In this case-control study, 63 patients with chronic urticarial and 63 controls without chronic urticarial were studied bye anti-TPO measurement. Anti-TPO level upper than 40 IU/ has been recognized as positive.

The prevalence of chronic urticaria among the case group was 3.5 times higher in women rather than men. Mean time of disease period was about 21.40±3.75 months. In this study, there was been no statistically significant association between age, sex, TSH level and anti-TPO concentration in both groups.

Anti-TPO level in patients with chronic urticaria was not significantly different from the control group. However, Anti-TPO levels were significantly higher in patients with longer duration of disease.