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A. Kasperska‐Zajac, Z. Brzoza, B. Rogala, Lower serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate concentration in chronic idiopathic urticaria: a secondary transient phenomenon?, British Journal of Dermatology, Volume 159, Issue 3, 1 September 2008, Pages 743–744, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2133.2008.08694.x
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Conflicts of interest: none declared.
Sir, In some cases urticaria is associated with hormonal changes, including thyroid dysfunction1 and menstrual hormonal alterations.2 In addition, we have demonstrated for the first time that chronic urticaria may be accompanied by lower serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEA‐S) concentration, yet its significance and underlying mechanisms are unclear.3 4–5 However, it seems that the decline in DHEA‐S observed in patients with chronic urticaria may be a secondary phenomenon resulting from psychological distress.5 DHEA‐S is the major adrenal androgen converted into active DHEA hormone which may exert multiple immunomodulating effects.6 Decreased serum concentration of DHEA‐S can be observed in chronic inflammatory and immune‐mediated diseases as well as in stress.6, 7
Natural clinical remission is frequently observed in chronic urticaria.8 As chronic urticaria may be associated with lower serum DHEA‐S concentration in the active period of the disease, we wanted to determine whether such a phenomenon is present when the disease reaches the clinical spontaneous remission phase. Therefore, serum DHEA‐S concentrations were analysed in patients with symptomatic chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU) and compared with levels in the same patients with CIU upon remission as well as in healthy controls.