TY - JOUR
TI - Childhood Acute Urticaria and Seasonal Patterns Presenting in the
Emergency Department of a Teaching Hospital in London, United Kingdom
AU - Koumaki, Dimitra
AU - Koumaki, Vasiliki
AU - Boumpoucheropoulos, Sotirios
AU - and Katoulis, Alexander
AU - Laguda, Bisola
JO - Pediatric Emergency Care
PY - 2022
VL - 38
TODO - 1
SP - E385-E386
PB - Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins
SN - 0749-5161, 1535-1815
TODO - 10.1097/PEC.0000000000002297
TODO - acute urticaria; seasonality; accident; respiratory infection; food
allergens
TODO - Objectives: To characterize the clinical presentation, possible trigger
factors and seasonality of acute urticaria (AU) in children referred to
the emergency department in a teaching hospital in London, United
Kingdom.
Methods: This was a retrospective descriptive study. One hundred and
sixty-three consecutive patients younger than 18 years with the
diagnosis of AU who attended accident and emergency department from
January 2018 until January 2020 at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in
London, United Kingdom, were included in the study. Descriptive
statistics were performed using IBM SPSS 25.
Results: In total, 163 patients younger than 18 years, 82 (50.3%) boys
and 81 (49.7%) girls. The median age of patients with AU was 4 years
(interquartile range, 6 years). In 120 of (73.6%) 163 patients, there
was no clear trigger of AU, in 17 (10.4%) of 163 patients, upper
respiratory infection was considered as a potential trigger of AU,
followed by food in 14 (8.6%) cases, medications in 9 (5.5%) cases,
hymenoptera sting in 1 (0.6%) case, and contact urticaria 2 (1.2%)
cases. Seventeen (10.4%) of the patients were admitted into the
hospital as a result of their urticaria. The majority of AU urticaria
cases were reported in autumn with 76 (46.6%) cases with most of AU
cases occurring in November (34/163, 20.9%).
Conclusions: A total of 163 cases of AU were identified between January
2018 and January 2020. A seasonal trend of AU in autumn was observed.
Respiratory infections were found to be the most commonly associated
potential trigger of AU cases.
ER -