Efficacy of H, antihistamine, corticosteroids and cyclophosphamide in the treatment of chronic dermographic urticaria.

H, antihistamines relieve urticaria by blocking the action of histamine on the target tissue, while demonstration of autoantibodies in the sera of a proportion of the patients having chronic idiopathic urticaria, use of immunosuppressive drugs for the treatment of these patients has acquired the greater rationality. We evaluated the role of corticosteroids and cyclophosphamide in the treatment of chronic dermographic urticaria. Twenty-five patients, 13 males and 12 females, between 18-53 years in age, having chronic dermographic urticaria were taken up for this study. The patients were divided into three groups. Group I patients (n=9) were treated with cetirizine hydrochloride 10 mg per day orally, group II patients (n=7) were treated with betamethasone 2 mg along with cyclophosphamide 50 mg along with cetirizine 10 mg per day for a total period of 4 weeks. The patients were evaluated every week to record the therapeutic response and side effects, and then followed up without treatment for a period of 6 months to look for recurrence of the urticaria, if any. Six patients in group I and all the patients in group II and group III had complete remission while the remaining patients in group I had partial relief. The side effects included drowsiness in 4 patients. All the patients in group II had weight gain, 4 patients had acne and 2 patients developed cushingoid features. Majority of the patients relapsed within 3 days after stopping the treatment. Supplementation of the treatment with oral corticosteroids or cyclophosphamide was more effective in controlling the symptoms as compared to cetirizine alone. But a four weeks supplementation was not adequate for preventing the relapses when the drugs were withdrawn.