Publications

Urticaria is a heterogeneous group of diseases with many subtypes. Almost all types of urticaria present with a common and distinctive clinical pattern, i.e. the development of itchy wheal and flare type skin lesions and/or angioedema, with the exception of urticaria factitia (in which angioedema is absent) and pressure urticaria (in which there are no wheals). Because of this, diagnosing urticarialargelyrelies on the clinical picture and patient history. Instead, diagnostic proceduresare aimed at the identification ofpossible trigger factors and allergies in acute urticaria, at findingthe underlying causes in chronic spontaneous urticaria (as this canchange therapeutic strategies and allow for a cure in some patients) and at characterisingthe factors that induce physical urticarias (as avoiding them can lead to significant improvement or even total prevention of symptoms).