Efficacy of omalizumab in chronic refractory urticaria: Practical experiences in Korean patients = Efficacy of omalizumab in chronic refractory urticaria: Practical experiences in Korean patients

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Background: More than half of chronic spontaneous urticaria ( CSU ) patients do not respond adequately to H1-antihistamine treatment. Omalizumab is a humanized anti-IgE monoclonal antibody that has proved to be effective in treatment of patients with chronic urticaria refractory to antihistamines.
Objectives: We analyzed real world experiences with using omalizumab for CSU patients who did not respond to treatment with high dose antihistamine.
Methods: Twenty five patients (male : female=12 : 13, mean age, 51.0 years) were treated with 150mg or 300mg omalizumab every 4 weeks more than 12 weeks. The duration of CSU ranged 3 months and 12 years (mean, 3.3 years). Mean serum IgE level was 127.4 IU/ml (2~362 IU/ml). Treatment efficacy were assessed primarily based on Weekly urticaria activity scores (UAS-7), Weekly itch severity score (ISS-7) and Investigator’s Global assessment (IGA) changes from baseline to week 12.
Results: After 12 weeks of therapy, mean UAS-7 decreased from 26.0 to 3.8, mean ISS-7 decreased from 13.5 to 2.1 and mean IGA decreased from 3.3 to 1.0. Complete remission (UAS-7 =0) was seen in 54.5% of patients who started with 300mg and in 35.7% of those who started with 150mg. Partial response (UAS-7≤6) was observed in 84.0 % of patients. Four patients(16%) had treatment failure(UAS-7>6) to omalizumab treatment.
Conclusion: This real world experience demonstrated that omalizumab is a well-tolerated, beneficial option for the treatment of CSU patient refractory to antihistamine.