The clinical presentation of urticaria is usually acute or acute-on-chronic or recurring. The patient may present with usually sudden, acute skin eruption with swelling, redness, intense itching, burning and anxiety.
The urticaria eruptions may be irregularly shaped or round or may be like a vertical
lines.. They may appear single or multiple, occasional or many appearing at once or a
appearing and disappearing in random order.
The most annoying concern for the sufferer is intense itching which, when uncontrolled makes the patient restless and impatient. At times, the eruptions and itching may lead to disturbance at work and sleeplessness.
Angioneurotic edema (ANO, also called as Giant Urticaria) is a variant of urticaria which simply means large (massive or giant) urticaria with severe swelling (edema) of the skin at a deeper cellular level. When this involves respiratory organs such as larynx, it may lead to suffocation and to a medical emergency. The lips may get terribly swollen with ANO.
Dermatographism is an uncommon(4%) and an important urticaria variant,
whereby if skin is rubbed forcibly as in in writing, the written letters could
raise showing the urticaria rash, as demonstrated in a patient treated at Life
force.
