Urticarial Vasculitis

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Definition of Vasculitis:
A varied group of disorders which all share a common underlying problem of inflammation of a blood vessel or blood vessels. The inflammation may affect any size blood vessel, anywhere in the body. It may affect either arteries and/or veins. The inflammation may be focal, meaning that it affects a single location within a vessel; or it may be widespread, with areas of inflammation scattered throughout a particular organ or tissue, or even affecting more than one organ system in the body.

Food allergies/Gluten and Urticaria

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Urticaria & tumor information

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General information on Chronic Urticaria

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Mastocytosis

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Definition of Mastocytosis:
A disease characterized by the presence of too many mast cells in various organs and tissues.

Description:

The body has a variety of free-roaming cell populations that function as immunogenic agents. Most immunogenic cells fall into the category of white blood cells, but some remain in tissues and are not found in the blood. Mast cells are such a group.

Mast cells are found primarily in the skin and digestive system, including the liver and spleen, and produce histamine, a chemical most famous for its ability to cause itching. Histamine also causes acid indigestion, diarrhea, flushing, heart pounding, headaches, and can even cause the blood pressure to drop suddenly.

Mastocytosis comes in three forms. Most cases produce symptoms but do not shorten life expectancy. The three forms are:

1)mastocytoma, a benign skin tumor

2)urticaria pigmentosa, small collections of mast cells in the skin that
manifest salmon or brown-colored patches

3)systemic mastocytosis, the collection of mast cells in the skin,
lymph nodes,liver, spleen, gastrointestinal tract, and bones

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Clinical testing information for physicians treating Urticaria

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Chronic Urticaria and Infections

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Helicobactor pylori infection and Urticaria

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Focal dental infections and Urticaria

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Nephritis and Chronic Urticaria

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Definition of Nephritis: Inflammation of the kidney. Nephritis can be acute or chronic.

Acute nephritis is most commonly caused by hypersensitivity (allergy) to drug therapy. Recognition of a drug-related cause is important because severe renal damage is often preventable or reversible. The most frequent drugs involved include analgesics (e.g., acetaminophen and aspirin), cyclosporine and tacrolimus (immunosuppressants used in transplantation and treatment of some autoimmune disorders), anti-cancer drugs (e.g., cisplatin; nitrosoureas; rarely, carboplatin), and lithium (for depressive disease). Sarcoidosis, Legionella, leptospirosis, Streptococcus, and viral infections, and certain Chinese herbs may also be responsible for acute nephritis.

Chronic nephritis can similarly be due to a very large number of causes, including drug hypersensitivity, autoimmunity, infections, radiation of the kidney, obstruction of the urinary tract, hypertension (high blood pressure is a very well known cause of chronic nephritis), sickle cell disease, and polycystic disease of the kidney.

Nephritis also results from metabolic and toxic disorders, including the deposition of urates (uric acid) in the kidney, hypercalcemia (high blood calcium) with deposition of calcium in the kidney, chronic lead intoxication, and cadmium toxicity.

What testing is available?

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Physicians or Research Centers

We want to hear from any physician who specializes in Chronic Urticaria. Please list your office address and any information you can give to patients who suffer fom this condition. Also any chronic urticaria patients who have been treated with some type of success we want to hear from you and any information you can give to others please post.

Does location play a part? What area(state) do you live?

Do not give out your exact location for privacy issues. If you live outside the US please give only general location and description of your seasons would be helpful.

Post new articles on urticaria here!

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Could food/diet play a factor in Chronic Urticaria?

In order to help others please post your "typical" daily diet food and drink intake if you are currently having daily urticaria please post here which should include snacks and drinks.

Definitions on the types of Urticaria

Physical urticaria:
There are different types of physical urticaria. It has yet to nbe determined the reason why a rash appears. The physical stimulus somehow causes a release of histamine and other chemicals which causes the rash.

Dermographism
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Dermographism means skin writing. People with this condition develop the rash on areas of skin that have been firmly stroked or using an object or finger creating pressure a rash appears as a line or writing on the skin. The affected area of skin is usually very itchy, but in some mild cases it does not itch much. Although any part of the skin can be affected, the palms, soles of the feet, genital skin and scalp are less commonly affected. Dermographism is more prone to occur when you are hot. For example, it may develop more easily when you rub yourself firmly with a towel after a hot shower. The rash tends to last less than an hour. In many cases the pressure needed to be applied to cause the rash is quite firm. However, some people develop dermographism with just light pressure.It most commonly first develops in early adult life. In most cases, the condition tends to improve gradually over a few years and it goes or becomes less severe. However, in some cases the condition remains troublesome for many years.

Cholinergic urticaria
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Cholinergic urticaria is quite common. It is caused by sweating and is sometimes called heat bumps. The urticarial rash is quite distinct as the weals are very small (2-3 mm) with a red flare around each one. The rash appears within a few minutes of sweating and tends to be worst on the chest, back and arms. The rash lasts from 30 minutes to an hour or more before fading away. Some people become slightly wheezy and short of breath for the duration of the rash.The sweating that triggers the rash may be due to exercise, heat, fever, emotion or eating spicy food. It can be a real nuisance when trying to exercise. In severe cases, hundreds of tiny weals develop when you run or do other types of exercise. Sometimes the tiny weals join together to form larger ones. Cholinergic urticaria most commonly first develops in early adult life. In many cases the condition tends to improve after a few years and it goes or becomes less severe. However, in some cases the condition remains troublesome for many years.

Cold urticaria
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Cold urticaria is a relatively uncommon. An urticarial rash develops after being exposed to cold, including rain, cold winds and cold water. It may be the cold that triggers the rash, or the re-warming of the skin after coming in from the cold. The rash affects the chilled parts of the skin. If a large area of skin has been chilled, the rash can be very extensive. For example, swimming in cold water may cause a widespread and severe rash over most of the body that can make you dizzy and faint. (For this reason, if you are known to develop cold urticaria, you should never go swimming alone.)

Delayed pressure urticaria
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Delayed pressure urticaria is uncommon. It can develop alone but it commonly affects people who also have chronic urticaria. In this type of urticaria the rash develops after the affected area of skin has had deep prolonged pressure applied. The rash can be painful and tends to last several hours, or even a day or so.


Solar urticaria
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This is rare. In this condition an urticarial rash develops on skin exposed to sunlight.





Aquagenic (water contact) urticaria
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In this rare condition an urticarial rash develops on skin exposed to water of any temperature.