Background and Design: Autologous serum skin test (ASST), the best in-vivo test displaying in vitro basophil histamin releasing activity, is used
in the diagnosis of chronic autoimmune urticaria. Besides, it is cheap and is easy to perform. It has been found that in ASST-positive chronic
urticaria patients, autoimmune thyroid disease especially and other autoimmune diseases were more common and the level of autoimmune
markers were higher compared to others. Autoimmunity is accused in the pathogenesis of alopecia areata and vitiligo. In this study, we
assessed ASST results in healthy controls and those with autoimmune diseases, and aimed to explore the effects of thyroid autoantibodies
and other factors in ASST positivity.
Materials and Methods: ASST was administered to 51 patients with alopecia areata, 53 patients with vitiligo and 51 healthy controls, and
thyroid function tests and thyroid autoantibodies (anti-Tg, anti-TPO) were assessed.
Results: ASST was positive in 64.7% of patients with in alopecia areata, 64.2% of those with vitiligo and in 45.1% of controls. There was no
statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of ASST positivity. We observed that ASST positivity had no relationship with
age, anti-Tg, anti-TPO and the presence of one or both autoantibody positivity. It was seen that the frequency of ASST positivity was higher in
females than in men in all groups, but it was statistically significant in alopecia areata group only. Among the all study groups, the frequency
of ASST positivity was statistically significantly higher in females than in men.Conclusion: The high rates of ASST positivity in individuals with alopecia areata and vitiligo as well as in healthy control, indicate that ASST positivity does not solely
exist in chronic urticaria patients. With logical regression analysis, it was shown that, having alopecia areata and being female significantly increase the risk of having
ASST positivity. Therefore, we assume that ASST positivity might indicate the autoimmune etiology for alopecia areata and susceptibility to autoimmune diseases in
female gender
