Lack of Association of Plasma Histamine with Diamine Oxidase in Chronic Idiopathic Urticaria

Annals of Dermatology 2013 May; 25(2): 189~195

Annals of Dermatology 2013 May; 25(2): 189~195  Lack of Association of Plasma Histamine with Diamine Oxidase in Chronic Idiopathic Urticaria Hee Jin Cho, Soo Ick Cho, Hye One Kim, Chun Wook Park, Cheol Heon Lee Department of Dermatology, Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Seoul, Korea This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background: Chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU) is considered a complex and multifactorial disease. Excessive histamine intake may induce an attack of urticaria. The main enzyme for histamine metabolism is diamine oxidase (DAO). Objective: Plasma histamine concentrations and DAO activities were evaluated to determine whether there are abnormalities in the histamine metabolism of CIU patients. Methods: Seventy-five CIU patients and twenty-five healthy control subjects were included in the study. Blood was taken from all subjects to measure plasma levels of the histamine and DAO. Results: Mean plasma histamine levels were significantly higher in CIU patients (11.59±10.98 nM) than in the control subjects (8.75±2.55 nM) (p=0.04). Mean DAO activities were lower in patients of CIU (80.86±26.81 histamine degrading unit [HDU]/ml) than in the controls (81.60±9.67 HDU/ml), but without significant difference. In 15 CIU patients with gastrointestinal symptoms, the mean histamine concentration was higher (12.43±7.97 nM) and DAO activity was lower (77.93±27.53 HDU/ml) than in the remaining 60 CIU patients without gastrointestinal symptoms (11.38±11.67 nM and 81.58±26.82 HDU/ml), without significant difference. The relationship between DAO activity and plasma histamine concentrations showed a significant negative linear value (p=0.001). There were no significant relationships between plasma histamine concentrations and symptom severity score. Conclusion: In CIU patients, a high plasma histamine concentration may not be explained by DAO activity. CIU patients with gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms showed no significantly lower DAO activity. Larger group studies are required to elucidate the relationship between plasma histamine concentrations and DAO activity, especially of CIU patients with GI symptomsto understand the difference in CIU patients with and without GI symptoms. (Ann Dermatol 25(2) 189∼195, 2013) Annals of Dermatology 2013 May; 25(2): 189~195 Keyword : Chronic urticaria, Diamine oxidase, Gastrointestinal, Histamine, Pseudoallergic reaction