الفهرس 
INTRODUCTION& RATIONALEOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The aim of the present study was to assess serum IgE and interleukin-4 level in chronic idiopathic urticaria patients, for more understanding of the pathogenesis of chronic idiopathic urticaria. To achieve such aim, this case control study was conducted in dermatology outpatient clinic of Suez Canal University Hospital among a total of 24 patients diagnosed to have chronic idiopathic urticaria and another 24 sex and age matched controls.
For all participants (patients and controls) serum IgE and IL-4 levels were assessed. Studied patients with chronic idiopathic urticaria were also evaluated for the activity of the disease using urticaria activity score (UAS).
More than half of the studied patients were aged 20 - 40 years (54.2%) while 29.2% were more than 40 years and 16.7% were aged < 20 years. About half of the patients were females (58.3%). As regard the disease activity, using UAS we have found that 45% of the studied patients have moderate disease activity, 37.5% have mild disease activity while severe activity was reported among 16.7%.
Studied patients with chronic idiopathic urticaria were found to have significantly higher serum levels of both IL-4 (57.08 IU/ml) and IgE (206.88 pg/ml) compared to control subjects.
The present study has showed also significant association between high IgE levels and disease activity as all patients with moderate and severe disease activity were estimated to have high IgE levels while all patients with mild disease activity were found to have normal IgE levels.
Inconsistent IgE, IL-4 levels were not significantly related to disease activity. Also there was no significant association between IL-4 levels and IgE levels.