Salivary Melatonin Levels, Sleep Quality, and Quality of Life in Patients with Chronic Urticaria in Comparison to Healthy Individuals

Background: For the majority of patients with chronic spontaneous urti-caria (CSU), a big problem is the nocturnal itch, which leads to sleep disturbance. Mel-atonin regulates promoting and maintaining the sleep cycle and its adequate produc-tion is crucial for good sleep quality (SQ). Methods: The aim of this study was to ex-amine salivary melatonin and the association between CSU severity, quality of life (QoL) and SQ in these patients. Salivary melatonin (ELISA), QoL (“Dermatology Qual-ity of Life”) and SQ (“Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index“) were determined in 38 CSU pa-tients and 38 healthy subjects. In CSU patients, the severity of the urticaria (“Urticaria Activity Score”) and the disease control (“Urticaria Control Test”) were additionally determined. Results: Decreased salivary melatonin was observed in 34/38 (89.5%) pa-tients with CSU. Severe form of urticaria was detected in 12/38 (42.9%) patients and QoL was significantly impaired in 8/38 (21%) patients. The severity of urticaria was linearly proportional to QoL and SQ in these patients, with a strong correlation with QoL and a weak correlation with SQ, while the salivary melatonin was not related to QoL nor SQ. Conclusions: Confirmed decreased levels of the salivary melatonin in CSU patients could be useful data for planning further therapy strategies.