Brief Answer:
"Urticarial pruritus": kindly give details

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

Welcome and thanks for posing your query to the forum.

I can understand your concern for the sudden intense itching problem in yourself.
After analyzing the complete details with diligence let me guide you for the condition which is known as "urticarial pruritus".

Before I proceed further let you understand about your problem. To tell you Medically - Our blood contains multiple type cells including red blood cells and white blood cells. Specifically these white blood cells provide immunity to our body which are of further multiple types.

Whenever anything in body is not suitable or offending to body then the number of white blood cells increases transiently. Particularly these cells which increase are eosinophils and basophils which are also known as mast cells. These cells contain granules which have a specific chemical known as histamine.

So as soon as any offending factors come in contact there is bursting of the mast cells. Therefore this histamine is released and we experience variable degree of itching and the kind of redness which you can see in yourself.

The redness can remain for a very transient period to upto multiple hours. It can remain for more than 12 hours too depending on the intensity of the offending factor but never more than 24 hours.

Now the type of offending factor are innumerable including our internal hypersensitivity to anything including environmental factors including temperature variation, food, heat, humidity, cold, dust and even simple of fragrances in air and multiple of other related things and very importantly stress too.

The part of history is though helpful but not conclusive enough to guide you to best suggestions and possibilities of complete remission.

I request you to provide important details:

- Is it for the first time you experienced such kind of redness and itching.

-If it is recurring then how often in a week you have these hives or these appear on daily basis.

- Any specific time of occurrence or appear randomly any time of day.

- How long these persist- for few hours or longer than 12 hours.

- Is this redness appears on all over body non-specifically or appears on certain areas of body.

-Severity of itching - mild/ moderate/ severe/ very severe.

Any other specific thing which you want to mention or any related illness or any other health issues or medications.

Waiting for your reply so that I can guide you further.

Regards,

Dr Sanjay Kumar Kanodia
MD (Dermatology)

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Brief Answer:
Loratadine (Claritin or Dazit) + Hydrocortisone cr

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

Welcome again to the forum and thanks for posting important details so that I can now guide you best regarding your present condition.

As it has occurred for the first time so it is too early to give you the exact cause of the same. But as it has happened basically on hands and feet so might be due to contact sensitization to some agent coming in contact with your skin in past 12-24 hours. You try and check for anything new in last 24 hours.

For the treatment part - it is quite simple and treated with drugs which inhibits the histamine release also known as Antihistamines. I myself prefer Loratadine ( Claritin or Dazit or Alaspan or Lorfast) in my patients as it is very simple medicine without any side effects of sedation.

In my patients I start with 2 tablets/day for couple of days. At night time I prefer to give levocetrizine.

If the itching and redness is not controlled then I increase it upto 3-4 tablets.
Once there are no lesions/bumps for few days then taper off to 1 tablet per day for couple of days before stopping.

A steroid based cream can be applied such as Hydrocortisone or fluticasone cream. it will reduce the redness on palms and also help in reducing the intensity of itching.

If still the itching and redness is not controlled then a short course of steroid is required under medical supervision.

I hope these information will help you in dealing the condition better. If you have any further queries I will be glad to help you.

With good health wishes,
Dr Sanjay Kumar Kanodia
MD - Dermatology

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