Facial Redness (Flushing): Examination

A comprehensive clinical examination is the basis for selecting further diagnostic steps:

  • General physical examination – including blood pressure, pulse, body weight, height; further:
    • Inspection (viewing).
      • Skin and mucous membranes [leading symptom: seizure-like flushing (erythema), especially in the head, neck region, and thorax]
    • Auscultation (listening) of the heart.
    • Auscultation of the lungs
    • Palpation (palpation) of the abdomen (abdomen), etc.
  • Cancer screening [due todifferential diagnoses:
    • Catecholamine-producing tumors – neoplasms such as pheochromocytoma (tumor of the adrenal gland) that produce catecholamines such as norepinephrine.
    • Medullary thyroid carcinoma – form of thyroid cancer that produces calcitonin.
    • Renal cell carcinoma (renal cell cancer).
    • Serotonin-producing carcinoid (synonyms: diffuse neuroendocrine neoplasia (neoplasm); neuroendocrine tumors, NET; gastoenteropancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasia (GEP-NEN)) – localization: Depending on the localization, the following are distinguished: the bronchus carcinoid, thymus carcinoid, appendix carcinoid, ileum carcinoid, duodenal carcinoid, gastric carcinoid, rectal carcinoid (colon NET), pancreatic carcinoid (pancreatic NET); approx. 80 percent of tumors are located in the terminal ileum or appendix.Symptoms: The first sign is often persistent diarrhea. Typical for the carcinoids (GEP-NEN) is the “flush symptomatology” (flush syndrome); this is a sudden blue-red discoloration of the face, neck and under certain circumstances of the torso understood, furthermore hypoglycemias (hypoglycemia) or duodenal ulcers (ulcers of the duodenum).
    • Systemic mastocytosis – disease characterized by excessive proliferation of mast cells.
    • Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP)-producing tumors – neoplasms that produce hormones physiologically synthesized in the digestive tract]
  • If necessary, gynecological examination in middle-aged women [due todifferential diagnosis: female climacteric disorders (menopausal symptoms)]
  • Health check

Square brackets [ ] indicate possible pathological (pathological) physical findings.