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Ivan Cherrez-Ojeda,1,2 Emanuel Vanegas,1,2 Miguel Felix,1,2 Valeria L Mata,1,2 Fanny M Jiménez,1,2 Mabel Sanchez,3,4 Daniel Simancas-Racines,5 Sofia Cherrez,6 Antonio WD Gavilanes,7,8 Johannes Eschrich,2 Peter Chedraui9,10 1Universidad Espíritu Santo, Samborondón, Ecuador; 2Respira Lab Research Group, Guayaquil, Ecuador; 3Universidad Laica Eloy Alfaro, Manabí, Ecuador; 4Universidad Estatal Del Sur Del Manabí, Manabí, Ecuador; 5Centro De Investigación En Salud Pública y Epidemiología Clínica, Facultad De Ciencias De La Salud Eugenio Espejo, Universidad Tecnológica Equinoccial, Quito, Ecuador; 6School of Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; 7Department of Pediatrics, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, the Netherlands; 8School of Oncology and Developmental Biology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands; 9Instituto De Investigación e Innovación En Salud Integral, Facultad De Ciencias Médicas, Universidad Católica De Santiago De Guayaquil, Guayaquil, Ecuador; 10Facultad De Ciencias De La Salud, Universidad Católica “Nuestra Señora De La Asunción”, Asunción, ParaguayCorrespondence: Ivan Cherrez-OjedaUniversidad Espíritu Santo, Km. 2.5 Vía La Puntilla, Samborondón 0901-952, EcuadorTel +593 4511455Email ivancherrez@gmail.comObjective: In recent years, the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has increased in various sectors, among which the healthcare service is no exception. However, studies have mostly focused on the use of ICTs among patients with chronic diseases, with few reports on the advantages and barriers of these technologies among physicians, particularly in Latin America. We designed this study to fill in the gap, as an objective assessment of the frequency of use, perceptions, and barriers of ICTs among physicians remains crucial for a successful implementation of these technologies into the mainstream medical practice.Methods: We conducted an anonymous cross-sectional survey-based study in 640 Ecuadorian physicians. The survey used consisted of 13 items and evaluated the frequency of use, perceptions, and barriers of ICTs among physicians. Chi-square tests for goodness of fit and independence were performed, whilst Phi coefficient was interpreted to assess the strength of associations. Fisher exact test was performed when required.Results: Over 90% of physicians reported the use of ICTs to message other colleagues and patients (p=0.000). While 89.5% of physicians used social media to interact with other colleagues, only 58.1% used them to interact with patients (p=0.000). Most participants reported the use of ICTs to search for academic information (p=0.000). Moreover, more than 80.0% agree that ICTs may be used to promote health and medical services, search new job opportunities, get involved in research projects and promote teamwork with colleagues. However, 83.6% of physicians expressed concerns about privacy and patient confidentiality, while 53.8% stated that they lacked the time to use ICTs.Conclusion: High usage of ICTs was found among Ecuadorian physicians. Younger physicians, with less postgraduate years, and non-specialists were more likely to have a positive perception toward ICTs. Privacy and patient confidentiality, followed by time management, were the most reported barriers in our study.Keywords: eHealth, social media, web 2.0, medical informatics, public health

Ivan Cherrez-Ojeda,1,2 Emanuel Vanegas,1,2 Miguel Felix,1,2 Sofia Cherrez,2,3 Delia Suárez-Almendariz,4 Johana Ponton,5 Vladimir Preciado,6 Edgar Ollague-Cordova,7 Enrique Loayza5 1Universidad Espíritu Santo, Samborondón, Ecuador; 2Respiralab Research Group, Guayaquil, Ecuador; 3School of Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; 4Departamento de Dermatología, Honorable Cuerpo Consular de Damas, Durán, Ecuador; 5Departamento de Dermatología, Hospital Luis Vernaza, Guayaquil, Ecuador; 6Área de Fototerapia, Hospital Luis Vernaza, Guayaquil, Ecuador; 7Clínica Dermatológica Ollague, Guayaquil, EcuadorCorrespondence: Ivan Cherrez-OjedaUniversidad Espíritu Santo, Km. 2.5 vía La Puntilla, Samborondón 0901-952, EcuadorTel +5934511455Email ivancherrez@gmail.comObjective: We designed this study to determine the frequency of alexithymia in Ecuadorian patients with psoriasis, as well as possible associations between demographic factors, disease severity, and treatment adherence.Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 99 Ecuadorian patients with psoriasis was conducted. Multinomial logistic regressions were performed to ascertain whether age, gender, educational level, years with disease, psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) scores, and treatment adherence categories are prediction factors in patients with psoriasis to present alexithymia, possible alexithymia or no alexithymia.Results: A total of 99 patients participated in the study with a gender distribution of 57.6% male, and an average age and years with disease of 48.3 and 7.4, respectively. Out of all patients, 33.3% presented alexithymia, and 22.2% possible alexithymia, as assessed by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). The multiple regression model statistically significantly predicted the TAS-20 score from age, gender, educational level, years with psoriasis, PASI score and level of adherence F (7,88) = 4.171, p = 0.001, adj. R2= 0.189. Only having the highest educational level added statistical significance to the prediction of having a lower TAS-20 score, whilst the remainder variables did not.Conclusion: We found a similar proportion of alexithymia, as well of average TAS-20 scores among Ecuadorian patients with psoriasis in comparison to previous studies. Only having the highest educational level was found to decrease the TAS-20 score. Age, gender, years with psoriasis, PASI score and level of adherence were not identified as factors that influence the TAS-20 score.Keywords: Alexithymia, psoriasis, Latin America, treatment adherence

Introduction: Up to 25% of children and 5.6% of adults in the USA have atopic dermatitis (AD), with substantial impacts on quality of life. Effective control can be challenging despite therapy efforts. The emergence of information and communication technologies (ICT) in AD management prompted this study to assess its impact on self-management. We conducted a meta-analysis to assess outcomes from peer-reviewed clinical trials evaluating the effectiveness of teledermatology, mobile health (mHealth) apps, and electronic devices for managing AD., Methods: We searched PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Embase for articles written in English and published until May 2023., Results: Twelve trials with 2424 participants were selected from 811 studies. A meta-analysis of 1038 individuals reported a mean difference (MD) of -1.57 [95% confidence interval (CI): -2.24, -0.91] for the Patient Oriented Eczema Measure (POEM). A meta-analysis of 495 individuals reported a Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) MD of -0.59 [95% CI: -0.95, -0.23]. Despite heterogeneity (I 2  = 47% and I 2  = 74%), the impact was significant (P ≤ 0.001). SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) showed an insignificant MD of -0.12 (P = 0.91)., Conclusion: mHealth applications and telemonitoring show significant improvement in patients' quality of life (DLQI) and self-management (POEM) but no significant impact on AD severity (SCORAD)., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Information/communication technologies such as mobile phone applications (apps) would enable chronic urticaria (CU) patients to self-evaluate their disease activity and control. Yet, recently Antó et al (2021) reported a global paucity of such apps for patients with CU. In this analysis, we assessed patient interest in using apps to monitor CU disease activity and control using questions from the chronic urticaria information and communication technologies (CURICT) study., Methods: The methodology for CURICT has been reported. Briefly, a 23-item questionnaire was completed by 1841 CU patients from 17 UCAREs across 17 countries. Here, we analyzed patient responses to the CURICT questions on the use of apps for urticaria-related purposes., Results: As previously published, the majority of respondents had chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU; 63%; 18% chronic inducible urticaria (CIndU) [CIndu]; 19% with both), were female (70%) and in urban areas (75%). Over half of patients were very/extremely interested in an app to monitor disease activity (51%) and control (53%), while only ∼1/10 were not. Patients with both urticaria types versus those with CSU only (odds ratio [OR], 1.36 [1.03-1.79]) and females versus males (OR [95% CI], 1.47 [1.17-1.85]) were more likely to be very to extremely interested in an app to assess disease control., Conclusions: Overall, half of the patients with CU were very to extremely interested in using an app to assess their disease activity and control. Development of well-designed apps, specific to disease types (CSU, CIndU, CSU + CIndU, etc), validated by experts across platforms would help improve the management and possibly outcomes of CU treatment while providing important patient information to be used in future research., (© 2021 The Authors. Clinical and Translational Allergy published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.)

Background: Few studies have explored the association between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and chronic urticaria (CU). Our study aims to fill this gap by determining the frequency of the risk categories for OSA and how they might correlate with the specific CU patient reported outcome measures urticaria activity score (UAS7), urticaria control test (UCT) and CU quality of life questionnaire (CU-Q2oL)., Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study involving a cohort of 171 Latin American CU patients. Descriptive statistics were used to determine frequency and proportions for demographic and clinical variables, while a chi-squared test for association between STOP-Bang OSA questionnaire categories and both UAS7 and UCT categories was performed to analyze how such variables interact. To further assess the strength of the correlation a Cramer's V coefficient was reported. Finally, a Kendall-Tau b correlation coefficient was performed to measure the correlation between the STOP-Bang score and other independent continuous variables., Results: The average STOP-Bang score was 2.5, with 24% and 21% of patients falling into the intermediate and high-risk category for moderate-to-severe OSA, respectively. There was a strong statistically significant association (Cramer's V = 0.263; p = .000) between UAS-7 categories and STOP-Bang risk categories . A similar pattern of strong significant association (Cramer's V = .269; p = .002) was observed between UCT categories and STOP-Bang risk categories. A weak positive correlation between the STOP-Bang score and the CU-Q2oL average score (τ b  = 0.188, p = .001) was identified. Overall, 72.5% patients reported limitations with respect to sleep in a varied degree according to the CU-Q2oL., Conclusions: Our results suggest that a considerable proportion of patients with CU are at intermediate to high risk for OSA. Higher disease activity, poor CU control, and worse quality of life were all found to be associated with an increased risk. Additional studies are needed to determine the exact link between these conditions, and to determine whether screening and treatment for OSA might benefit patients with CU., Competing Interests: Authors declare no conflicts of interest in relation to this work., (© 2021 The Author(s).)

Background: Patients with chronic urticaria (CU) are increasingly using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to manage their health. What CU patients expect from ICTs and which ICTs they prefer remains unknown. We assessed why CU patients use ICTs, which ones they prefer, and what drives their expectations and choices., Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 1841 patients across 17 countries were recruited at UCAREs (Urticaria Centers of Reference and Excellence). Patients with CU who were >12 years old completed a 23-item questionnaire., Results: Most patients were interested in receiving disease information (87.3%), asking physicians about CU (84.1%), and communicating with other patients through ICTs (65.6%). For receiving disease information, patients preferred one-to-one and one-to-many ICTs, especially web browsers. One-to-one ICTs were also the ICTs of choice for asking physicians about urticaria and for communicating with other patients, and e-mail and WhatsApp were the preferred ICTs, respectively. Many-to-many ICTs such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter were least preferred for all 3 purposes. Living in rural areas and higher education were linked to higher odds of being interested in receiving disease information, asking physicians, and communicating with patients through ICTs., Conclusions: Most patients and especially patients with higher education who live in rural areas are interested in using ICTs for their healthcare, but prefer different ICTs for different purposes, ie, web browsers for obtaining information, e-mail for asking physicians, and WhatsApp for communicating with other patients. Our findings may help to improve ICTs for CU., Competing Interests: I Cherrez-Ojeda has no conflicts of interest. E Vanegas has no conflicts of interest. A Cherrez has no conflicts of interest. M Felix has no conflicts of interest. K Weller is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for, and/or has received research funding from: Biocryst, CSL Behring, Dr. Pfleger, FAES, Moxie, Novartis, Shire/Takeda, and Uriach. M Magerl is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for, and/or has received research funding from Biocryst, CSL Behring, Kalvista Pharmaceuticals, Moxie, Novartis, Pharming, and Shire/Takeda. RR Maurer has no conflicts of interest. VL Mata has no conflicts of interest. A Kasperska-Zajac has no conflicts of interest. A Sikora has no conflicts of interest. D Fomina is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for, and/or has received research funding from: AstraZeneca, CSL Behring, Glaxo SmithKline, MSD, Novartis, Sanofi, and Shire/Takeda. E Kovalkova has no conflicts of interest. K Godse has no conflicts of interest. N Dheeraj Rao has no conflicts of interest. M Khoshkhui has no conflicts of interest. S Rastgoo has no conflicts of interest. RFJ Criado has no conflicts of interest. M Abuzakouk has no conflicts of interest. D Grandon has no conflicts of interest. MBA van Doorn is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for, and/or has received research funding from Abbvie, BMS, Celgene, Janssen Cilag, LEO Pharma, Lilly, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, and Sanofi-Genzyme. S Valle has no conflicts of interest. E Magalhães de Souza Lima has no conflicts of interest. SF Thomsen is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for, and/or has received research funding from: Abbvie, AstraZeneca, Celgene, Eli Lilly, Janssen, LEO Pharma, Novartis, Pierre Fabre, Roche, Sanofi, and UCB. GD Ramón has no conflicts of interest. EE Matos Benavides has no conflicts of interest. A Bauer is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for, and/or has received research funding from Novartis, Sanofi, Genentech, Leo Pharma and Shire/Takeda. Ana M Giménez-Arnau has held roles as a Medical Advisor for Sanofi, Uriach, Genentech, Novartis, Amgen , ThemoFisher, Roche, Almirall, and has research grants supported by Instituto Carlos III- FEDER, Novartis, and Uriach; she also participates in educational activities for Almirall, Genentech, Glaxo SmithKline, LEO Pharma, Menarini, MSD, Novartis, Sanofi, Avene and Uriach. E Kocatürk is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for Bayer, Novartis, and Sanofi. C Guillet has no conflicts of interest. JI Larco is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for: FAES, Novartis, and Sanofi. Z-T Zhao has no conflicts of interest. M Makris is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for, and/or has received research funding from AstraZeneca, Chiesi, Glaxo SmithKline, Novartis, and Sanofi. C Ritchie has no conflicts of interest. P Xepapadak reports personal fees from Galenica Greece, Glaxo SmithKline, Nestle, Novartis, Nutricia, and Uriach, outside the submitted work. LF Ensina is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for, and/or has received research funding from Novartis, Sanofi, and Takeda. S Cherrez has no conflicts of interest. M Maurer is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for, and/or has received research funding from: Allakos, Alnylam, Aralez, AstraZeneca, Biocryst, Blueprint, CSL Behring, FAES, Genentech, Kalvista Pharmaceuticals, LEO Pharma, Menarini, Moxie, MSD, Novartis, Pharming, Pharvaris, Roche, Sanofi, Shire/Takeda, UCB, and Uriach., (© 2021 The Author(s).)

Background: Chronic urticaria (CU) is characterized by itchy recurrent wheals, angioedema, or both for 6 weeks or longer. CU can greatly impact patients' physical and emotional quality of life. Patients with chronic conditions are increasingly seeking information from information and communications technologies (ICTs) to manage their health. The objective of this study was to assess the frequency of usage and preference of ICTs from the perspective of patients with CU., Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 1800 patients were recruited from primary healthcare centers, university hospitals or specialized clinics that form part of the UCARE (Urticaria Centers of Reference and Excellence) network throughout 16 countries. Patients were >12 years old and had physician-diagnosed chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) or chronic inducible urticaria (CIndU). Patients completed a 23-item questionnaire containing questions about ICT usage, including the type, frequency, preference, and quality, answers to which were recorded in a standardized database at each center. For analysis, ICTs were categorized into 3 groups as follows: one-to-one: SMS, WhatsApp, Skype, and email; one-to-many: YouTube, web browsers, and blogs or forums; many-to-many: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn., Results: Overall, 99.6% of CU patients had access to ICT platforms and 96.7% had internet access. Daily, 85.4% patients used one-to-one ICT platforms most often, followed by one-to-many ICTs (75.5%) and many-to-many ICTs (59.2%). The daily ICT usage was highest for web browsers (72.7%) and WhatsApp (70.0%). The general usage of ICT platforms increased in patients with higher levels of education. One-to-many was the preferred ICT category for obtaining general health information (78.3%) and for CU-related information (75.4%). A web browser (77.6%) was by far the most commonly used ICT to obtain general health information, followed by YouTube (25.8%) and Facebook (16.3%). Similarly, for CU-specific information, 3 out of 4 patients (74.6%) used a web browser, 20.9% used YouTube, and 13.6% used Facebook. One in 5 (21.6%) patients did not use any form of ICT for obtaining information on CU. The quality of the information obtained from one-to-many ICTs was rated much more often as very interesting and of good quality for general health information (53.5%) and CU-related information (51.5%) as compared to the other categories., Conclusions: Usage of ICTs for health and CU-specific information is extremely high in all countries analyzed, with web browsers being the preferred ICT platform., Competing Interests: M Maurer is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for, and/or has received research funding from: Allakos, Alnylam, Aralez, AstraZeneca, Biocryst, Blueprint, CSL Behring, FAES, Genentech, Kalvista Pharmaceuticals, LEO Pharma, Menarini, Moxie, MSD, Novartis, Pharming, Pharvaris, Roche, Sanofi, Shire/Takeda, UCB, and Uriach. K Weller is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for, and/or has received research funding from: Biocryst, CSL Behring, Dr. Pfleger, FAES, Moxie, Novartis, Shire/Takeda, and Uriach. M Magerl is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for, and/or has received research funding from Biocryst, CSL Behring, Kalvista Pharmaceuticals, Moxie, Novartis, Pharming, and Shire/Takeda. RR Maurer has no conflicts of interest. E Vanegas has no conflicts of interest. M Felix has no conflicts of interest. A Cherrez has no conflicts of interest. VL Mata has no conflicts of interest. A Kasperska-Zajac has no conflicts of interest. A Sikora has no conflicts of interest. D Fomina is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for, and/or has received research funding from: AstraZeneca, CSL Behring, Glaxo SmithKline, MSD, Novartis, Sanofi, and Shire/Takeda. E Kovalkova has no conflicts of interest. K Godse has no conflicts of interest. N Dheeraj Rao has no conflicts of interest. M Khoshkhui has no conflicts of interest. S Rastgoo has no conflicts of interest. RFJ Criado has no conflicts of interest. M Abuzakouk has no conflicts of interest. D Grandon has no conflicts of interest. M van Doorn is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for, and/or has received research funding from Abbvie, BMS, Celgene, Janssen Cilag, LEO Pharma, Lilly, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, and Sanofi-Genzyme. S Valle has no conflicts of interest. E Magalhães de Souza Lima has no conflicts of interest. SF Thomsen is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for, and/or has received research funding from: Abbvie, AstraZeneca, Celgene, Eli Lilly, Janssen, LEO Pharma, Novartis, Pierre Fabre, Roche, Sanofi, and UCB. GD Ramón has no conflicts of interest. EE Matos Benavides has no conflicts of interest. A Bauer has no conflicts of interest. Ana M Giménez-Arnau has held roles as a Medical Advisor for Sanofi and Uriach, and has research grants supported by Instituto Carlos III- FEDER, Novartis, and Uriach; she also participates in educational activities for Almirall, Genentech, Glaxo SmithKline, LEO Pharma, Menarini, MSD, Novartis, Sanofi, and Uriach. E Kocatürk is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for Bayer, Novartis, and Sanofi. C Guillet has no conflicts of interest. JI Larco is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for: FAES, Novartis, and Sanofi. Z-T Zhao has no conflicts of interest. M Makris is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for, and/or has received research funding from AstraZeneca, Chiesi, Glaxo SmithKline, Novartis, and Sanofi. C Ritchie has no conflicts of interest. P Xepapadak reports personal fees from Galenica Greece, Glaxo SmithKline, Nestle, Novartis, Nutricia, and Uriach, outside the submitted work. LF Ensina is or recently was a speaker and/or advisor for, and/or has received research funding from Novartis, Sanofi, and Takeda. S Cherrez has no conflicts of interest. I Cherrez-Ojeda has no conflicts of interest., (© 2020 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of World Allergy Organization.)

Little is known about the association of urticarial vasculitis (UV) with thyroid autoimmunity. The latter has been mostly described in the setting of patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU). In this letter to the editor, we compare UV and CSU through retrospective analyses, which reveal that 41.7% patients with UV presented antithyroperoxidase (anti-TPO) and/or antithyroglobulin antibody (ATA) above the reference range, while only 4% patients with CSU had these antibodies elevated. There is a moderately strong association assessed by the Phi coefficient (φ = 0.420, p = 0.004). Further research is needed to appropriately address the relationship between UV and thyroid autoimmunity and explore any potential underlying pathophysiological process between both diseases., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Background: The instantaneous spread of information, low costs, and broad availability of information and communication technologies (ICTs) make them an attractive platform for managing care, patient communication, and medical interventions in cancer treatment. There is little information available in Latin America about the level of usage of ICTs for and by cancer patients. Our study attempts to fill this gap., Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the level of ICT use and patterns of preferences among cancer patients., Methods: We conducted an anonymous cross-sectional survey study in 500 Ecuadorian cancer patients. This questionnaire consisted of 22 items about demographic and clinical data, together with the preferences of people who use ICTs. Chi-square, crude, and adjusted logistic regressions were performed., Results: Of the total, 43.2% (216/500) of participants reported that they had access to the Internet, and 25.4% (127/500) reported that they neither owned a cell phone nor did they have access to the Internet. The Internet constituted the highest usage rate as a source of information about malignant diseases (74.3%, 162/218) regardless of age (P<.001). With regard to the preferences on how patients would like to use ICTs to receive information about diseases, WhatsApp (66.5%, 145/218) and short message service (SMS) text messaging (61.0%, 133/218) were widely reported as interesting communication channels. Similarly, WhatsApp (72.0%, 157/218) followed by SMS (63.8%, 139/218) were reported as the preferred ICTs through which patients would like to ask physicians about diseases. Adjusted regression analysis showed that patients aged between 40 and 64 years were more likely to be interested in receiving information through SMS (odds ratio, OR 5.09, 95% CI 1.92-13.32), as well as for asking questions to physicians through this same media (OR 9.78, CI 3.45-27.67) than the oldest group., Conclusions: WhatsApp, SMS, and email are effective and widely used ICTs that can promote communication between cancer patients and physicians. According to age range, new ICTs such as Facebook are still emerging. Future studies should investigate how to develop and promote ICT-based resources more effectively to engage the outcomes of cancer patients. The widespread use of ICTs narrows the gap between cancer patients with restricted socioeconomic conditions and those with wealth and easily available technological means, thereby opening up new possibilities in low-income countries., (©Ivan Cherrez Ojeda, Emanuel Vanegas, Michell Torres, Juan Carlos Calderón, Erick Calero, Annia Cherrez, Miguel Felix, Valeria Mata, Sofia Cherrez, Daniel Simancas. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 20.02.2018.)

Background: Existing guidelines do not offer a quick, efficient alternative to the patient's recollection of relevant clinical features during anamnesis and physical examination for chronic urticaria (CU). This study aimed to identify specific items reflecting the main characteristics of CU that should be included in a comprehensive medical history for patients with CU. We also aimed to clarify possible eliciting factors for CU to support accurate diagnosis of the disease., Methods: A panel of postgraduate dermatologists conducted a literature search for relevant studies on CU using Medline, the Cochrane database, and PubMed., Results: We identified82 articles from which we drew a collection of items to inform development of an easy-to-use checklist and collection of items that should be included in a correct medical history. The final version of the checklist included42 items across two areas: essential clues for anamnesis and diagnosis of CU; and typical symptoms/parameters or characteristics according to subtype, etiology, and laboratory findings. Items included time of disease onset; duration, shape, size, color, and distribution of wheals; associated angioedema; atopy; and triggering factors., Conclusions: Our guide provides an easy-to-use tool to support clinicians to focus, orient themselves, and save time in medical consultations for CU, allowing better diagnosis and management of this disease.

Rapid diffusion, low cost and broad availability of information and communication technologies (ICTs) make them an attractive platform for managing care, communication and interventions in asthma. There is little information in Latin America about usage frequency of ICTs in asthmatic patients. The analysis undertaken consisted of an observational, cross-sectional study that aimed to identify the frequency and type of ICTs most often used by asthmatics. The Spanish version of the Michigan questionnaire was employed in five Latin American countries. Age and educational level was categorised. Logistic regression was performed among these groups concerning the frequency of ICT usage and the level of interest shown in seeking and receiving information about asthma. In total, 673 asthma patients were surveyed. The mean age was 43.44 years. Over two-thirds of the participants were female (68.4%). The most used ICT was the short message service (SMS) (69.9%). SMS and E-mail are useful tools for communicating ( i.e. receiving and seeking information) with all asthma patients, irrespective of their age. WhatsApp (61.5%) and Facebook (32.0%) were rated as being the most interesting channels of communication for receiving information. Regression analysis showed that younger asthmatics and asthmatics with higher educational levels were most likely to use almost all forms of ICTs. ICTs are generally an attractive platform for managing care, communication and interventions to improve asthma care. SMS and E-mail were found to be the preferred ICT forms among users. However, social media forms such as WhatsApp and Facebook may also be appropriate for certain types of patient., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: None declared.