Assessing the Treatment of Solar Urticaria

Abstract

The weal and flare produced by monochromatic irradiation in solar urticaria may be treated as a classical dose-response. This has been used to investigate therapy with H1 and H2 antihistamines. The conventional H1 drug proved superior. But from the practical viewpoint, solar urticaria is difficult to suppress even with a relatively efficient H1 antihistamine, chlorpheniramine; the mean protective factor in 5 patients was only 2, insufficient for satisfactory clinical management.