Urticaria: impact on quality of life and economic cost.

Patients with urticaria suffer itch, swellings, fatigue caused by sleep disturbance and the side effects of medication, and disruption of many facets of their lives. Much progress has been made in formally evaluating the degree of quality-of-life (QoL) impairment suffered by patients with urticaria. This review focuses on QoL in chronic urticaria (>6 weeks duration) and examines QoL measures, including the chronic urticaria-quality of life questionnaire (CU-Q2oL). Patients with urticaria have difficulty identifying and coping with their emotions. The psychiatric comorbidity and the financial burden on the patient and society because of chronic urticaria, is also examined.

Infantile pyoderma gangrenosum.

Pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) is rare in infants. There have been 12 cases of PG in infants (<12 months old) reported in the past 25 years, to our knowledge. Six of these cases have been successfully controlled with systemic steroids, and one case with topical steroids alone. We report a case of an 8-month-old infant whose PG was aggressive and unresponsive to systemic steroids. Adjuvant treatment with cyclosporine was required to achieve healing. We review the previous cases of infantile PG and the therapeutic options in this age group.