| Abstract [eng] |
Recently it has become clear that about half of patients with chronic urticaria have autoimmune origin of the disease. There is still no simple, reproducible clinical test for functional autoantibodies. Improved screening tests are being sought, for example, ability of CU patient’s serum to evoke expression of CD63 and CD203c on donor basophils by using flow cytometry is showing some promise. The aim of our study was to evaluate the diagnostic significance of autoreactivity markers and their correlation in chronic urticaria patients. Sera from patients with chronic urticaria significantly upregulate both CD63 and CD203c molekules on donor blood basophils. Estimated cut-off value of the tests was 10%. The sensitivity and specifity of the assays were 55.8% and 72.9% for CD63, 55.8% and 60% for CD203c respectively. We found significant correlation between CD63 and autologous serum skin test and no correlation between CD203c and skin test. There were no correlation between basophil activation tests, autologous serum skin test and other autoreactivity markers and chronic urticaria features. Treatment with antihistamines was less effective in patients with positive autologous serum skin test. We compared the results of CD63 and CD203c expression tests for the first time in diagnosis of chronic autoimmune urticaria. We estimate the cut-off value of both tests, sensitivity and specifity, using the autologous serum skin test as „gold standard“. Better prognostic features of CD63 test in comparisson with CD203c suggests its potential usefulness for diagnosis of chronic autoimmune urticaria. |
