Chronic urticaria: diagnostic approach practiced by medical specialists and general practitioners of Russia
Chronic urticaria (CU) is a highly prevalent cutaneous disease, characterized by almost daily emergence of blisters, itching, sometimes angioedemas (AE), persisting during more than 6 weeks. Thi aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge of the diagnostic methods used in CU by medical specialists (allergologists, dermatologists) and general practitioners (pediatricians, therapeutists) from various cities by evaluating their knowledge of the international and national clinical recommendations and consensus documents. The study was carried out in 1500 physicians (350 allergologists and immunologists, 500 dermatologists, 300 pediatricians, and 350 therapeutists). After rejecting the defective questionnairs (unfit for processing), 300 questionnairs were included in the study, responded by 60 (20%) allergologists-immunologists, 108 (36%) dermatologists, 61 (20.3%) pediatricians, and 71 (23.7%) therapeutists. Of all the respondents, 42.7% knew the national and foreign clinical recommendations on the diagnosis of CU. Allergologists were 4.9 times more informed than therapeutists, 2.9 times more than pediatricians, and 2.3 times more than dermatologoists (x <sup>2</sup> <sub>1</sub> = 76.110; p < 0.0001; V = 0.504). Physicians who did not know the consensus documents - mainly the primary health care physicians (therapeutists, pediatricians) - were liable to nonoptimal diagnosis and consulted their colleagues of allied specialization 2 times more often (x <sup>2</sup> <sub>1</sub> = 30.516; p < 0.0001; V = 0.403). This could be attributed to the fact that they did not know about the existence of the recommendations, had no time to study these documemnts, their foreign languages level was low, and some analysis were unavailable for therapeutic institutions. Physicians can be better informed by organization of allergology schools, round tables, master classes, lectures, and via internet training (web workshops, presentation of modern manuals at specialized sites, education programms in social networks).