Aquagenic Urticaria: A Report of Two Cases

Aquagenic urticaria is a rare form of physical urticaria, in which contact with water evokes wheals. A 19-year-old man and a 4-year-old boy complained of recurrent episodes of urticaria. Urticaria appeared while taking a bath or a shower, in the rain, or in a swimming pool. Well-defined pin head to small pea-sized wheals surrounded by variable sized erythema were provoked by contact with water on the face, neck, and trunk, regardless of its temperature or source. Results from a physical examination and a baseline laboratory evaluation were within normal limits. Treatment of the 19-year-old man with 180 mg fexofenadine daily was successful to prevent the wheals and erythema. Treatment with 5 ml ketotifen syrup bid per day resulted in improvement of symptoms in the 4-year-old boy.

A Case of Aquagenic Urticaria / 대한피부과학회지

Aquagenic urticaria is a rare form of physical urticaria. It is manifested as pruritic multiple erythematous maculopapular eruptions mainly on the neck, chest and upper extremities by direct water contact. We report a 15-year-old male with urticarial lesions on the chest and both arms for 3 months. The lesions occurred 20 minutes after showering, irrespective of the water temperature. His symptom was temporarily controlled by oral antihistamines with UVB irradiation or PUVA therapy.

A Case of Aquagenic urticaria / 대한피부과학회지

Aquagenic urticaria is a rare form of physical urticaria in which wheal is produced by contact with water. A 21-year-old woman was referred to our department because of itching wheal after contact with water for 1 month. Match-head-sized wheal surrounded by bean sized erythema was provoked with water on her face regardless of its tempera ture, osmolarity and quality. Passive transfer test was negative. Result of pro vocation test with normal saline and NaHCO solution, which was reported to be therapeutically effective, was similar to those with pure water.