Urticarial vasculitis treated with colchicine.

Cutaneous vasculitis may present as an urticaria-like eruption in association with viral illness, systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjögren's syndrome, or serum sickness. Often, however, urticarial vasculitis presents as an immune complex-mediated disease without other associated connective-tissue disease or associated infection. Many forms of therapy have been tried, including antihistamines, prednisone, and immunosuppressive drugs without success in every patient. Because colchicine had been effective in some patients with non-urticarial cutaneous vasculitis, we decided to use it in two patients with urticarial vasculitis in whom other therapy had failed. Both responded dramatically, although severe hypocomplementemia persisted in one patient.