TUESDAY, Feb. 25, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Adjuvant high-dose vitamin D3 is beneficial for patients with chronic urticaria, according to a study published online Feb. 7 in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.
Andy Rorie, M.D., from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, and colleagues conducted a prospective study involving 42 subjects with chronic urticaria to examine whether high-dose vitamin D supplementation would decrease Urticaria Symptom Severity (USS) scores. Participants were randomly allocated to receive 12 weeks of vitamin D3 supplementation at high (4,000 IU/day) or low (600 IU/day) doses. Participants were also provided with standardized triple-drug therapy and a written action plan.
The researchers found that in the first week there was a 33 percent decrease in USS scores with triple-drug therapy. By week 12, the high-dose, but not the low-dose, vitamin D3 treatment group had a further significant, 40 percent decrease in total USS scores. At week 12, the high-dose group had a trend toward lower total USS scores compared with the low-dose group, which was driven by significant reductions in body distribution and number of days with hives. High vitamin D3 correlated with beneficial trends for sleep quality and pruritus scores. High vitamin D3 supplementation correlated with increased serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels, but no association was observed for 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and USS scores. No between-group difference was observed in allergy medication use.
"Add-on therapy with high-dose vitamin D3 (4,000 IU/day) could be considered a safe and potentially beneficial immunomodulator in patients with chronic urticaria," the authors write.
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