Aquagenic urticaria

Aquagenic urticaria is a type of urticaria. This type of urticaria is a relatively special disease. It is basically impossible to touch water. Once it touches water, allergies will occur. The symptoms of this disease are relatively special compared to other urticaria. Its treatment methods are also different from those of other urticaria. So what is aquagenic urticaria?

Aquagenic Urticaria is an extremely rare skin disease, also known as water allergy. Severe patients can only drink a small amount of cola to replenish body water. They should not be in contact with water for too long and can only take a bath for a few minutes. There are currently only 35 cases in the world, and no one has been cured.

Aquagenic urticaria is small wheals similar to acetylcholine urticaria that occur after contact with water. It has nothing to do with the temperature of the water. It is a physical urticaria, a type of urticaria and angioedema caused by scratches, pressure, cold, heat, light, water and tremor. The disease is more common in adolescent or pre-adolescent women with allergic constitution.

The rash is usually located on the neck, upper limbs, and upper trunk. After the wheals are stimulated by tap water and then isolated for 30 minutes and then exposed to distilled water, the typical wheals reappear immediately. At the same time, the intradermal test results using sterile water for injection are (+), indicating that the occurrence of wheals is not caused by the biological effects of organic ions in tap water. The main symptoms of allergies are body pain, itchy skin, redness and swelling, which can last for hours. The patient may have some kind of allergic constitution, which may induce water allergy in certain circumstances. Experiments have shown that patients with idiopathic aquagenic pruritus and urticaria have elevated blood histamine levels, mast cell degranulation in the lesioned tissues, and negative passive transfer tests.

The cause of aquagenic urticaria is the interaction between water and sebum in the skin to produce a new water-soluble absorbable antigen. This unknown antigen prompts nearby mast cells to release histamine when passing through the pilosebaceous gland unit. In this process of disease development, water may play the role of a solvent.