Affiliations: Department of Medical and Pediatric Science,
University of Catania, Catania, Italy
Note: [] Corresponding author: Salvatore Leonardi, Department of Medical
and Pediatric Science, University of Catania, Catania, Italy. Tel.: +39
953782764; Fax: +39 953782895; E-mail: leonardi@unict.it
Abstract: Urticaria is a heterogeneous group of diseases. All types and
subtypes of urticaria share a common distinctive skin reaction pattern, i.e.,
the development of urticarial skin lesions and/or angioedema. Chronic
urticaria/angioedema has traditionally been defined as daily or almost daily
symptoms for more than 6 weeks. We searched MedLine database and carried out a
manual search with the aim of assessing the possible use of leukotriene
receptor antagonists (LTRAs) in children with chronic urticaria (CU).
Leukotrienes (LT) production from mast cells, basophils and eosinophils has
been confirmed in CU patients and several studies in adults have shown that
LTRAs have beneficial effect in the treatment of this disease. However, there
are no studies evaluating the effectiveness of these drugs in children and no
evidence that LTRAs could improve urticaria symptoms even in this age group.
However, because of safety and good tolerability of montelukast as early as
six-month-old, this review could represent an opportunity to encourage
researchers to publish controlled trials using antileukotrienes in children
with CU.
Keywords: Urticaria, chronic urticaria, angioedema, leukotriene receptor antagonists, children
