As per a recent study published in the journal, “Clinical Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology”, the elimination of H. pylori infection in patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria aids to relieve gastrointestinal symptoms, improves the therapeutic effect of chronic spontaneous urticaria within two weeks and minimizes the recurrence rate three months after therapy. Researchers undertook this retrospective propensity score matching analysis to explore the role of H. pylori eradication to treat chronic spontaneous urticaria.

The analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 522 individuals suffering from chronic spontaneous urticaria who underwent H. pylori breath test. Participants were divided into two arms: (i) CSU-HP(+) group: Individuals having chronic spontaneous urticaria and H. pylori infection, who were treated with antihistamines combined with H. pylori elimination therapy, (ii) CSU-HP(-) group: Individuals with chronic spontaneous urticaria alone, who were administered antihistamines.

To ascertain the similar characteristics of both the groups, the propensity score matching (PSM) assessment, utilizing the nearest neighbor matching method on a 1:1 basis was carried out. To procure a balanced cohort of participants in each arm, various factors, including sex, age, red and white blood cells, platelets, creatinine, alanine transaminase, immunoglobulin E, and pre-therapy urticaria activity score were matched. Following matching, the treatment effects were examined. McNemar’s test, t-tests, and Χ2 test were utilized for comparative assessment between the two arms prior to and after matching.

Participants in the CSU-HP (+) arm reported considerably more gastrointestinal symptoms in comparison to the CSU-HP (-) arm. The urticaria activity score in the second week of therapy were remarkably different between the two arms. After a period of three months, the recurrence rate in CSU-HP (+) arm was found to be reduced when compared to CSU-HP (-) arm. Thus, for patients with H. pylori-positive chronic spontaneous urticaria, eliminating H. pylori infection improves urticaria treatment and minimizes gastrointestinal symptoms.