Abstract:

objective: To investigate and compare the effect and safety of epinastine and levocetirizine for the treatment of chronic urticaria (CU)．Methods: A randomized, double-blind, double-dummy, multicenter, parallel control clinical trial was employed．The patients with CU were divided into epinastine group and levocetirizine group．Epinastine (10mg／day)or levocetirizine (5mg／day) were taken once daily for 28 days，and were followed up on the 28th day after starting treatment. Results: One hundred and twenty cases were evaluable for the effect and safety at the end of the study． The effective rates in epinastine group and in levocetirizine group were 70.05% and 67.79%.There was no significant difference between the two groups（P=0.2564）． The drug adverse reaction for epinastine group and levocetirizine group were 11.48% and 23.33% respectively. Conclusion: Epinastine is an efficient and safe antihistaminic drug on treating chronic urticaria.

Key words: Epinastine; levocetirizine; Urticaria; randomized controlled trials; double-blind method