The following symptoms and complaints may indicate flushing:
Leading symptom
- Seizure-like flushing (erythema), especially in the head, neck region, and chest area
Warning signs (red flags)
- Any non-menopausal or emotional flush should be clarified – especially if other symptoms occur.
- Flush symptomatology + severe itching → think of: Carcinoid (neuroendocrine tumor).
- Persistent diarrhea (diarrhea) + flushing symptomatology (blue-red discoloration of face, neck, and possibly upper body) → think of: Carcinoid
- Facial flushing after syncope (short-term loss of consciousness) always requires further diagnostic workup (suspected diagnoses include: Adams-Stokes seizure, epilepsy, hypoglycemia/hypoglycemia, mastocytosis/rare disease characterized by accumulations of mast cells in the skin (skin mastocytosis) or in the internal organs/bone marrow (systemic mastocytosis)).
