Chronic Urticaria Is Not Significantly Associated With Hepatitis C or Hepatitis G Infection

Results: Antibodies to HCV were found in 1 patient with urticaria and in 1 of the control group (0.9% of each group). None had circulating HCV RNA, and liver func- tion test results were within the reference range. Ge- nomic amplification without HCV antibodies was not ob- served. Two patients with urticaria and 2 of the control group (1.8% of each group) had circulating HGV RNA, but they had neither coinfection with HCV nor changes in their liver function test results. Conclusions: Systematic HCV screening in patients with chronic urticaria is not cost-effective, at least in Europe, because hepatitis C rates were similar to those of the gen- eral population. We could not confirm the hypothesis that urticaria occurs in an early phase of HCV infection—ie, before evidence of HCV can be detected by serologic test- ing. Hepatitis C virus is unlikely to be the cause of urti- caria in the infected patient detected in this study be- cause of the absence of HCV RNA and changes on liver function tests. Hepatitis G virus is also unlikely to be a cause of urticaria, as the rate of HGV positivity in this study was even lower than that in the general French population.