Is there a relationship between parasitosis and urticaria?

Abstract

Little research has been done to explore the connection between parasitosis and urticaria. Therefore, this study was to evaluate how parasitosis and urticaria are related. The study involved 150 healthy subjects and 150 urticarial patients; three stool samples were collected, examined by direct and staining methods. Immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels were measured. Out of 150 patients, 38.0% had acute urticaria and 62.0% had chronic urticaria, 78.0% were women, and 22.0% were men. The rate of parasitic infections in the urticarial group was 94%, whereas it was 51.33% in the healthy group. Blastocystis spp. was the most detected parasite (32.67% vs. 22.7%), followed by Entamoeba coli (29.33% vs. 20.0%), Cryptosporidium spp. (13.33% vs. 8.7%), Giardia intestinalis (12.7%. vs. 0.0%) (p value< 0.0001). Also, mixed parasitic infections were detected. Associated diarrhea and colic were 72.0% in urticarial patients vs. 12.7% in control persons. The mean concentration of total serum IgE was 473.44±147.13 in patients with parasitic infections, whereas it was 130.77±11.34 in negative patients. Serum IgE mean concentration levels were 99.88±1.93 in the parasitic infection-positive control group and 30.77±11.34 in the parasitic infection-negative control group. Out of 141 patients who had parasitic infections, 34.75% showed peripheral eosinophilia. Conversely, out of 77 parasitic infection-positive control group, 19.48% showed peripheral eosinophilia. Urticarial remissions occurred in 85.11%. These findings indicate that skin allergy may be associated with certain stages of the parasites’ life cycle or with host tissue location, but not necessarily only with parasites’ presence in the hostile organism.