Inhibiting effect of cetirizine on histamine-induced and 48/80-induced wheals and flares, experimental dermographism, and cold-induced urticaria

A single oral dose of cetirizine, 10 mg, a new H1 antagonist with minimal sedative effects and devoid of anticholinergic activities, was administered to eight healthy subjects. It markedly inhibited the wheal and flare induced 4 hours later by intracutaneously injected histamine and compound 48/80. Dermographism was produced by different pressures (100 to 500 gm/15 mm2) in 10 patients with factitial urticaria. Four hours after 10 mg of cetirizine, the whealing was absent in eight patients and markedly reduced in the other two subjects. In 12 patients with cold urticaria, wheals were induced by 30 seconds to 12 minutes application of an ice cube. Four hours after 10 mg of cetirizine, the urticarial reaction had disappeared in five patients and was decreased in the other patients. No itching was experienced in any of the patients after cetirizine, but the tested areas had an erythema lasting for 20 to 60 minutes.