Suitability of tryptase concentration determination during PUVA therapy in patients with cutaneous and systemic mastocytosis

Introduction
Mastocytosis is a heterogeneous group of diseases featuring pathological growth of mast cells in different organs. Mastocytoses have various clinical manifestations. Mastocytosis progress is individual and dependent on many elements: the patient’s age, disease form, treatment response and presence of mutations.

Objective
To demonstrate the suitability of the determination of mastocyte tryptase (serum tryptase) in patients before and after PUVA therapy.

Material and methods
The study included 17 patients who fulfilled the criteria of mastocytosis. Serum tryptase concentration was determined before and after PUVA exposures.

Results
The mean tryptase concentration in both of the studied groups before the PUVA exposure was 33.60 g/l, and after completing the exposures it increased to 39.62 g/l. Analyzing separately the values of the serum tryptase concentration before and after PUVA therapy in patients with cutaneous and systemic mastocytosis, a statistically significantly higher concentration of serum tryptase was found in patients with systemic mastocytosis. Furthermore, it was found that in the systemic form, the mean serum tryptase concentration increased during the PUVA therapy, while in patients with cutaneous mastocytosis this concentration did not change.

Conclusions
Serum tryptase concentration in patients with mastocytosis subject to PUVA therapy is a dynamic parameter. In patients with isolated urticaria pigmentosa, tryptase concentration is maintained in a normal range, whilst in patients with systemic mastocytosis it is increased.