Symptoms of skin rash

The symptoms vary depending on the cause of the rashes. All rashes have in common that a mostly reddish skin change occurs in different parts of the body. Both the speed at which the rash spreads and the symptoms vary from symptomless progressions to severe, itchy and burning.

Skin rashes can occur in many different forms all over the body. In most cases the rash is a symptom of a disease. To find out the cause of the rash, one evaluates its appearance, its location and whether it changes.

If it occurs all over the body, diseases such as chickenpox or food allergies are possible. If the rash is limited, it can be a symptom of a contact allergy or acne, for example. Thus, the form of the rash often indicates the disease behind the symptom “skin rash“.

The most common accompanying symptom of a rash is itching. The affected areas can also be painful, overheated or burning.As a further symptom, the mucous membranes in the mouth and throat can also be affected by the rash, in this case it is called enanthema. Depending on the cause of the rash, other symptoms and signs of illness may be added, such as fever (fever with rash), nausea, swelling, sweating, breathing difficulties, coughing, swelling of the lymph nodes.

In children, acutely blossoming red spots with fever often indicate one of the classic childhood diseases such as measles or chickenpox. Neurodermatitis is characterized by symptoms such as dry skin and intermittent, inflamed and very itchy skin areas. Erysipelas can present itself through reddened skin areas with swellings on the leg.

Side effects caused by medication are often red, thickened, itchy spots (but also other rash types) and usually spread over the back and chest and on both sides of the inner sides of the arms and legs. Since there are countless possible forms and causes of skin rashes, these are just a few examples to illustrate how the different symptoms of a rash indicate the causative disease.

The first symptoms that appear with a skin rash are also called primary florescences.
For example, spots (maculae), nodules (papules), blisters (vesiculae), pustules or wheals (urticae) can be the first symptoms to appear.
If a skin rash changes, this leads to so-called secondary lorescences. These symptoms manifest themselves for example as scales (squamae), crusts (crustae), abrasions (excoriation), ulcers (ulcer) or scars (ciatrix). The appearance of the rash thus usually provides an initial indication of the possible cause.

The most common accompanying symptom of a rash is itching, which is an unpleasant sensation of the skin that provokes scratching or rubbing of the fingernails against the skin.

The itching is triggered by certain messenger substances (mediators). These messengers are mainly located in certain cells in the skin, the so-called mast cells. In various skin diseases these messenger substances are released from the cells, but they can also be released by drugs, food, allergens, plant or insect toxins.

This causes the symptom “itching”. This sensory disturbance can sometimes also be perceived as burning, pain or overheating. An itchy skin rash can occur both acutely and chronically.

In addition to severe itching, the rash is often manifested by changes in the color and surface texture of the skin. Depending on the cause, the rash takes on different forms, often resulting in an expansion of the affected skin surface. An acute itchy skin rash is medically called exanthema and can be caused by various infectious diseases such as rubella, chickenpox, measles or scarlet fever.

In these diseases, the rash usually has a specific form and, in addition to itching, is accompanied by symptoms such as fever, chills, aching limbs, nausea and vomiting. Itching, which is accompanied by a skin rash, is often triggered by skin diseases such as hives, psoriasis or neurodermatitis. Hypersensitivity to certain medications can also trigger itching associated with a rash.

The so-called “drug exanthema“, i.e. a skin rash caused by drugs, indicates an intolerance to a drug (for example to the antibiotic Ampicillin) and is accompanied by severe itching.

In hives, itchy wheals form, while psoriasis is characterized by reddened skin areas where the uppermost skin layer peels off white.
Neurodermatitis can be diagnosed by a typical red skin rash that feels rough and scaly.
Very unpleasant itching can also be caused by the scabies. Scabies is a skin disease and is caused by mites.
They prefer to burrow in layers of skin between the fingers and toes as well as in the armpits and genital area. In addition to the severe itching, scabies causes a nodular skin rash.

The doctor will ask about the duration of the symptoms and the speed of their spread and localization, if they are not obvious anyway.Furthermore, he will query the accompanying symptoms, such as dizziness, fever, deterioration in general condition. Finally, one of the most important questions will be whether the patient has either taken new medication that he/she has never taken before the appearance of the rash, or whether there was a new application of chemical or biological substances before the appearance of the exanthema (new detergent, new skin cream, etc). In addition to the medical history, the gaze diagnosis is one of the essential diagnostic criteria. Exanthema is clearly visible in most cases, symptoms such as burning or itching must be queried separately.