What is chronic spontaneous urticaria?

➢ Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) refers to urticarial lesions arising spontaneously, occurring on most days of the week for six weeks or more. ➢ CSU is a common condition that has a lifetime prevalence rate of around 1.8% of the general population ➢ This disorder, whose subjects need not be atopic individuals; is typically diagnosed when chronic hives and swelling (associated angioedema occurs in about 40 percent of patients) do not appear to be associated with any other systemic disease process and are not due to one of the physically induced urticaria Workup very limited strong association with thyroid autoimmune diseases (24% have thyroid autoantibodies) Avoid aspirin and NSAIDs (aspirin exacerbated cutaneous disease)