Medical history (history of illness) represents an important component in the diagnosis of urticaria (hives).
Family history
- What is the general health of your relatives?
- Are there any diseases in your family that are common?
Social history
- What is your profession?
- Are you exposed to harmful working substances in your profession?
Current medical history/systemic medical history (somatic and psychological complaints).
- At what site do the wheals/urticaria appear?
- Only in one area?
- Distributed over the entire body?
- How long have you had the wheals/urticaria?
- Have you noticed any sudden swelling of the skin or mucous membranes?
- Are the skin changes painful? Or are they very itchy?
- Was there a trigger known to you for the formation of the wheals/urticaria?
- Did the changes occur in association with manipulation of the skin (cold/heat irritation, mechanical irritation)? Or are they related to food intake? (If so, which foods?)
- Before the appearance of the wheals/urticaria, did you [augmenting factors/reinforcing factors.]
- Physically exerted yourself?
- Drunk alcohol?
- Taken non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or other drugs (ACE inhibitors; see below)?
- Are there other symptoms such as fever, general feeling of illness, etc.?
Vegetative anamnesis incl. nutritional anamnesis.
Eigenanamnese incl. medication anamnesis
- Pre-existing conditions (skin diseases, food allergies, infections).
- Operations
- Radiotherapy
- Vaccination status
- Allergies
- Pregnancies
- Environmental history
- Medication history
Medication history
- ACE inhibitors (benazepril, captopril, cilazapril, enalapril, fosinopril, lisinopril, moexipril, peridopril, quinapril, ramipril, spirapril).
- Anesthetics
- Anthelmintics (praziquantel)
- Antibiotics such as penicillin
- Antivertiginosa (betahistine)
- AT1 antagonists (sartans) – belong to the anithypertensives.
- Chelating agents (deferoxamine, deferasirox).
- Histamine liberators (e.g., X-ray contrast agents, muscle relaxants).
- Mucolytics (acetylcysteine (ACC); N-acetylcysteine (NAC); N-acetyl-L-cysteine).
- Monoclonal antibodies (nataliztumab).
- Muscle relaxants, unspecified
- Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) – acetylsalicylic acid (ASA).
- Opiates or opioids (alfentanil, apomorphine, buprenorphine, codeine, dihydrocodeine, fentanyl, hydromorphone, loperamide, morphine, methadone, nalbuphine, naloxone, naltrexone, oxycodone, pentazocine, pethidine, piritramide, remifentanil, sufentanil, tapentadol, tilidine, tramadol).
- X-ray contrast agent (as an immediate response).
- Sterols (sterols) – ursodeoxycholic acid
