The following symptoms and complaints may indicate Quincke’s edema (angioedema):
Leading symptoms
- Recurrent edema (water retention/skin swelling) of:
- Lips
- Eyelids
- Tongue
- Face
- Larynx (larynx)
- Extremities
- Genital
- Feeling of tension in the affected parts of the skin
- Pruritus (itching)
- Painful abdominal discomfort/abdominal cramps → think of: Deficiency or decreased activity of C1 esterase inhibitor (C1-INH).
- Nausea (nausea), vomiting.
- Diarrhea (diarrhea)
Possible accompanying symptoms
- Dysphagia (dysphagia)
- Dyspnea (shortness of breath) [due toangioedema of the larynx/larynx].
Other notes
- Usually, angioedema is histamine-mediated angioedema (mast cell-mediated) or idiopathic cases.
- Bradykinin-mediated angioedema manifests throughout the body, often in the extremities and gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
- Recurrent abdominal colic of unclear cause + acute ascites → think: hereditary angioedema (HAE) Note: Characterized by episodic skin and mucosal swelling that may occur on the face and frequently on the extremities and gastrointestinal (GI) tract; furthermore, recurrent (reoccurring) abdominal colic, acute ascites (abdominal dropsy), and edema (water retention) that occurs up to twice weekly and, if untreated, lasts approx. 3-5 days.
Hereditary (inherited) angioedema with C1 inhibitor mutation
Prodromal symptoms (precursor symptoms of disease):
- Fatigue
- Irritability
- Fatigue
- Increased feeling of thirst
- Erythema marginatum – sharply demarcated, truncal, non-pruritic, pinkish-red rash belonging to erythema (areal redness of the skin).
The following symptoms and complaints may indicate heriditary angioedema:
- Recurrent edema (recurrence of skin swelling) without pruritus (itching) or erythema (areal redness); and/or
- Recurrent abdominal pain attacks, with/without vomiting and/or diarrhea (diarrhea).
- If necessary, with recurrent ascites (abdominal fluid) and or.
- Recurrent edema of the upper respiratory tract.
Other indications
- * The edema is usually not pressable!
- No appearance of wheals
- Restitutio ad integrum (healing of a disease without permanent damage).
- Duration of untreated angioedema: 3-5 days (in rare cases hours to 7 days).
- Note: No response to antihistamines (drug which attenuates or abolishes the effect of the endogenous messenger histamine) and/or glucocorticoids.