Symptoms

The typical leading symptom of hives is redness of the skin with wheals. The redness is caused by increased blood flow to the affected area of skin, whereas the wheals are caused by water accumulation within the skin. The wheals can extend over several centimeters and are often very itchy.

The wheals do not usually remain in one place, but rather move over the skin. A single wheal usually disappears within one day. Additional complications that can occur with hives are so-called angioedema.

Here, an area of skin swells due to an effusion of fluid into the subcutaneous fatty tissue. This symptom often occurs on the face and can disfigure the patient for about 1-3 days. Many different skin rashes can be summarized under the term hives.

In general, it is a flat redness of small or large areas of skin. The rash usually appears suddenly and can be very itchy. Typical for hives is the accumulation of fluid in the superficial skin, which leads to the so-called hives.

The rash can change over several days and wander around. The hives recede and new ones appear elsewhere. This allows the hives to move over the skin.

Diagnosis

The diagnosis of urticaria is mainly based on a detailed doctor-patient conversation (anamnesis) and an inspection of the affected skin areas. A dermatologist but also a general practitioner can assess the rash and make a diagnosis. During the anamnesis it is important to find out if allergies, intolerances or previous skin symptoms and rashes are known.

A concomitant disease, medication or other recent behavior or changes in habits can also be related to the skin disease.In the case of spontaneous outbreaks of hives, detailed questioning and inspection of the rash is sufficient to make a diagnosis. Only in cases of severe manifestations of urticaria or chronic progression of the disease must the cause be determined by means of various test procedures. Blood tests, antibody tests or special diets can be used.