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This article discusses the Urticaria Control Test (UCT), a patient-reported outcome measure used to assess disease control in chronic urticaria (CU). The study aimed to validate the UCT in a real-world population by analyzing data from 1357 CU patients. The results showed that all four questions of the UCT are relevant in measuring disease control, and no question could be omitted without affecting the construct validity. The authors suggest that the four-question approach should be retained, but further studies are needed to confirm these findings in different populations and languages. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses a study conducted by Zhang et al. on the clinical applicability of the Urticaria Control Test (UCT) in patients with chronic urticaria (CU). The study found that Question 1 (Q1) consistently had the highest correlation with the total UCT score for all patients with CU, indicating its predictive value for overall disease control. Additionally, Question 3 (Q3) was found to have the highest correlation with the total UCT score for patients with pure chronic inducible urticaria (CIndU). The study also highlighted the importance of all four UCT questions in measuring disease control and their correlation with other patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). Furthermore, the study emphasized the limitations of biochemical markers in assessing disease control in CU patients. The authors suggest the potential for data sharing and collaboration to expand the evidence base and increase diversity in future research. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) help to assess disease control and quality of life (QoL) in chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) and recurrent angioedema (RA). This study aimed to assess the correlation between two different concepts: disease control and QoL, using disease-specific PROMs., Methods: We analyzed data from 445 CSU and 330 RA patients who completed both a disease control and QoL PROM as part of the clinical routine. We included the UCT and CU-Q2oL for CSU and AECT and AE-QoL for RA., Results: In CSU and RA, disease control scores positively correlated with QoL scores (Spearman's rho correlation coefficient (CR) -0.757, -0.735; p < 0.001) with better disease control corresponding to better quality of life. However, 5.9% of CSU patients and 28% of RA patients with complete disease control had impaired QoL. In CSU, QoL was impaired in 69.2% of patients based on the CU-Q2oL and in 62.7% of patients based on a single numeric question from the UCT, with a mismatch in 89/445 patients. In RA, QoL was impaired in 58.5% using the AE-QoL and in 52.7% using a single numeric question from the AECT30mo, with a mismatch in 69/330 patients. Different domains of the QoL PROMs showed different degrees of influence on disease control, with "Itching/Embarrassment" showing the strongest correlation with the UCT (CR -0.804; p < 0.001) and "Functioning" with the AECT3mo (CR -0.824; p < 0.001)., Conclusion: Although most patients with controlled disease have better quality of life, unexpectedly, quality of life remains impaired in up to one-fourth of patients with completely controlled CSU and RA. Reasons behind this should be investigated in further studies., (© 2025 The Author(s). Clinical and Translational Allergy published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.)