Natural course of physical and chronic urticaria and angioedema in 220 patients

Background. Information about spontaneous remission of chronic urticaria is limited. Objective: To investigate the natural course of urticaria, we followed up 2 20 adults in a prospective study. Methods: Patients were followed up for I to 3 years to evaluate interventio ns, to detect latent causes, and to study the natural course of urticaria. The diagnosis was made by detailed history-taking as well as laboratory and provocation tests. Results: Thirty-five percent of all patients were free of symptoms after I year. In 28.9% of patients, symptoms had decreased. Spontaneous remission o ccurred in 47.4% of the patients in whom no cause of their urticaria and/or angioedema could be identified and in only 16.4% of the patients with phys ical urticaria. A cause could be identified in 53.1% of the patients, Thirt y-six percent of the patients had idiopathic urticaria. Chronic idiopathic urticaria combined with physical urticaria occurred in 10.9%. Conclusion: In general the prognosis for spontaneous remission is reasonabl e, with the exception of the subgroup (33.2%) with physical urticaria.