Dermatographic urticaria
human skin condition, responsible for "skin writing" effect in those affected
Dermatographic urticaria, better known as skin writing, is a skin disorder and one of the most common types of urticaria, affecting 2–5% of the population.
Signs and symptoms
The condition manifests as an allergic-like reaction, causing a warm red wheal to appear on the skin. As it is often the result of scratches, involving contact with other materials, it can be confused with an allergic reaction, when in fact it is the act of being scratched that causes a wheal to appear. These wheals are a subset of urticaria (hives), and appear within minutes, in some cases accompanied by itching. The first outbreak of urticaria can lead to other reactions on body parts not directly stimulated, scraped, or scratched.
In a normal case, the swelling will decrease without treatment within 6–30 minutes, but, in extreme cases, itchy red welts may last anywhere from a few hours to days. In some cases, welts are accompanied with a painful burning sensation. This calls for more urgent treatment as the condition can impact on the patient's quality of life.
Causes
Symptoms are thought to be the result of histamine being released by mast cells on the surface of the skin. Despite the lack of antigens, histamine causes the skin to swell in affected areas.
The public source identifies “Dermatographic urticaria” as human skin condition, responsible for "skin writing" effect in those affected. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Dermatographic, urticaria and human.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dermatographic urticaria” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.