Observation of the efficacy of cetirizine in treatment of chronic and acute urticaria

Objective:To evaluate the safety and efficacy of cetirizine in treatment of acute and chronic urticaria.Methods:Patients with urticaria were randomly divided to receive once daily oral 10 mg cetirizine or once daily oral 10mg Zyrtec(imported cetirizine) for 7 days (for acute urticaria) and 14 days (for chronic urticaria).Results:In cetirizine group,the effective rate was 66.7% for acute urticaria cases ( n =24) and 74.0% for chronic urticaria cases ( n =26).In the control group,the effective rate was 88.5% for acute urticaria cases( n =26) and 64.0% for chronic urticaria cases( n =25).The adverse event rate was 23.1% for active group and 19.6% for control group.There were no significant differences between groups in both the effective rate and the adverse event rate.Conclusion:Cetirizine is a safe and effective H 1 receptor antagonist for treatment of acute and chronic urticaria.