A Clinical Analysis on 117 Patients with Urticaria Based on Sasang Constitutional Medicine

A Clinical Analysis on 117 Patients with Urticaria Based on Sasang Constitutional Medicine Ji-Hwan Kim, Seong-Sik Park Dept. of Sasang Constitutional Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Dongguk Univ. Objectives The purpose of this study was to find out whether there were differences of urticaria's disease aspect between patients classified into Sasang Constitution Types(SCTs) and whether those differences could be associated with Ordinary symptoms. Methods Medical records and questionnaires about 117 patients who visited one Korean medicine hospital due to urticaria were collated and statistically analyzed. Results 1) Ages 20 to 30, women, Soeumin(SE) and patients in conditions of chronic urticaria over 6 weeks were the majority among 117 patients in this study. Food and stress were most chosen as the main cause of urticaria. 2) Soyangin(SY) showed more severe symptoms of urticaria than other SCTs. In particular, the severity of pruritus, distribution of lesions and vulnerability to stress was statistically significant compared to other SCTs(p<0.05). SE expressed urticaria's symptoms at the medium-level of SY's and Taeeumin(TE)'s. TE exhibited relatively weak symptoms but TE only had slightly higher number of patients with angioedema compared to other SCTs. Taeyangin(TY) was only one case so more researches are needed. 3) In dispositional symptoms, SY had low quality of sleep and defecation. SE could not digest oily food well, felt dizzy and cold well, and had cold hands and feet. TE could eat and sweat much and tended to snore well. Conclusions In this study, urticaria had common cause of both stress and food in all SCTs but onset and severity of symptoms were different between SCTs. It could interpreted that these differences between SCTs were associated with ordinary symptoms native to each SCT.