What are the clinical symptoms of anaphylactic shock?

Anaphylactic shock is a disease that can endanger the patient's life if not treated in time. It is a reaction that occurs when certain external substances enter the sensitized body. So what are the clinical symptoms of anaphylactic shock?

Symptoms and diagnosis

(1) Blood pressure drops sharply to shock levels, that is, below 10.7/6.7 kPa (80/50 mmHg). If a patient with hypertension has a systolic blood pressure that drops sharply from the original level to 10.7 kPa (80 mmHg), he or she may be considered to have entered a shock state.

(ii) The patient begins to feel fear, panic, irritability, dizziness or shouting, and may also experience amblyopia, yellow vision, hallucinations, double vision, etc.; followed by confusion or even complete loss of consciousness, with weakened or lost light reflexes and other reflexes.

It can be called shock only when there is a drop in blood pressure and impaired consciousness. Both are indispensable. If there are only symptoms of shock, it is not enough to indicate that it is anaphylactic shock.

(3) Prodromal symptoms of allergies include flushing of the skin or transient pallor of the skin, chills, etc.; itchy skin all over the body or itchy palms, numbness of the skin and mucous membranes, mostly numbness of the lips and limbs, followed by various rashes, most of which are large wheals. In severe cases, large areas of subcutaneous angioedema or swelling of the skin all over the body may occur. In addition, edema of the nose, throat, and pharyngeal mucosa may also occur, resulting in sneezing, watery nasal discharge, hoarseness, difficulty breathing, laryngeal spasm, etc. Many patients also have esophageal obstruction, abdominal discomfort, accompanied by nausea and vomiting.

(iv) History of contact with allergens, medication use before the onset of shock, especially history of drug injections, and history of contact with other specific allergens, including food, inhalers, contact objects, insect stings, etc.

For general anaphylactic shock, the above four points can be used to make a diagnosis. Anaphylactic shock sometimes occurs extremely quickly, sometimes in a lightning-like manner, so that the symptoms of allergy are not obvious. As for the specific cause of anaphylactic shock, it should be diagnosed with caution, because when the patient has shock, he often uses multiple drugs at the same time or is exposed to multiple suspected allergens, so it is difficult to make a hasty conclusion; in addition, in the process of allergy tests such as drugs to confirm the diagnosis, false positive results or serious consequences such as re-shock may also occur, so it should be done with caution. If it must be done, safety should be strived for. For highly allergenic substances or patients who are highly sensitive to their allergens, they should first start with patch, scratch and other tests, or use conjunctival tests, sublingual mucosal buccal tests, and intradermal injection tests, which must be strictly controlled; during the test, the dosage must be strictly controlled, and preparations for rescue such as anti-shock should be made.