[Correlation of severity of chronic urticaria and quality of life]. / Correlación de la gravedad de urticaria crónica y calidad de vida.

BACKGROUND: Chronic urticaria (CU) is characterized by the presence of wheals and pruritus in the majority of days for more than six weeks, affecting quality of life as in patients with ischemic cardiopathy. There is a validated specific instrument in Spanish to assess quality of life in chronic urticaria (CU-Q2oL). OBJECTIVE: To show the association between severity of CU and quality of life in patients according to urticaria activity score (UAS) and questionnaire of quality of life in chronic urticarial (CU-Q2oL), respectively. METHODS: Instruments of Urticaria Activity Scoring (UAS) and a questionnaire of quality of life were applied to a group of patients with UC. Some causes of urticaria were assessed by means of history and physical, laboratory tests and autologous serum skin test. RESULTS: Fifty patients with UC were included, of whom 82% were women, with a mean age of 41 years. We observed moderate severity in 58%. Sixty percent of the patients presented a positive anti-IgE autoantibodies test; idiopathic chronic urticarial was seen in 24% of the patients and allergic etiology in 20%. The main impairment in quality of life was related to the pruritus and the function. The relationship between severity and quality of life was meaningful: r2= 0.511 y p<0.0001, with an inverse proportional relation. CONCLUSIONS: : We found a clear inverse correlation between the instruments of severity of urticaria and quality of life. The application of both instruments can be very useful in the care of patients with chronic urticaria.