**6. Prognosis**

Cases of acute urticaria have a benign course with most patients being managed with conventional treatments [8].

Studies concerning duration of chronic spontaneous urticaria have yielded varying results. However, it is clear that many patients are affected for more than one year and an important proportion of patients have a long-term course of the disease exceeding 5 years [3].

In chronic spontaneous urticaria, there are four factors that potentially predict long disease duration, namely disease severity, presence of angioedema, autoreactivity and combination with physical urticaria. Patients with moderate to severe disease tend to have a more persistent disease as compared to patients with mild disease. Presence of angioedema with or without wheals in patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria predicts a longer course [3]. Autoreactivity, which is defined by a positive autologous serum skin test, reflects the finding of autoantibodies against IgE receptor or IgE. These patients have more severe disease with a longer duration and require higher doses of antihistamines to control disease activity than patients with negative autologous serum skin test [19]. Patients suffering from both chronic spontaneous urticaria and physical urticaria are likely to have longer disease duration in comparison with patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria alone [3].
