My wife has urticaria. Please help.

Question

Hello doctor,

My wife has been getting a rash, which the doctor has termed "urticaria."

What could have caused this?

I feel she could be having a yeast intolerance.

Please help.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

Your wife has been treated for urticaria. I would keep the possibility of idiopathic urticaria/hives. It presents as sudden skin welts/swellings, which can be distributed all over the body. Itching is usually severe; however, it is subjective in individuals.

The causes of urticaria include various factors such as infections (bacterial, viral, or fungal), drugs like painkillers, and also certain foods, additives, and preservatives.

Physical urticaria can occur due to cold temperature, heat, dermographism, etc., and cholinergic urticaria will occur in response to strong emotions, exercise, spicy food, etc.

Autoimmune urticaria is usually associated with autoimmune diseases such as thyroid, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, etc.

The most common one is idiopathic urticaria, where there will be no underlying identifiable cause.

Regarding treatment, I suggest oral antihistamines like Montelukast and Levocetirizine once daily. Also, she can take the tablet Allegra 120 mg (Fexofenadine) once daily.

Treatment may sometimes last for months or years. A topical soothing lotion like calamine would help her symptomatically.

Kindly get the food allergy tests and thyroid tests to rule out yeast intolerance.

Thank you.

Answer 2

Hi,

Welcome back to icliniq.com.

I guess you suspect her to be yeast intolerant, and it could be the responsible cause for her urticaria.

There is no scientific proof regarding an entity called yeast intolerance.

I would rather suspect that she has chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU). It is well-recognized that 30 to 40 percent of chronic idiopathic urticaria is autoimmune in nature.

I would therefore recommend an ASST test for her (autologous serum skin testing).

This test is to either rule out or confirm chronic autoimmune urticaria (CAU).

The autologous serum skin test is used as a screening test for chronic autoimmune urticaria and has a sensitivity and specificity of about 70 percent and 80 percent, respectively.
There is a strong link between chronic autoimmune urticaria (CAU) and autoimmune thyroid disease.
However, most of these patients are euthyroid (normal thyroid gland functioning), just in the case of your wife.
Treatment would remain the same and may sometimes need to be taken for months or years.

I hope it helps.

Thank you.