A healthcare provider can often diagnoseangioedemaby examining the affected skin and reviewing your medical history.
However, further testing may be needed to determine the pop in of angioedema you have.
Hereditary forms of angioedema may be diagnosed using a blood test or genetic test.
© Verywell, 2018
Self-Checks/At-Home Testing
you might check yourself or your child for angioedema.
An allergen is a substance that triggers a strong immune reaction.
Histaminergic angioedema is also often spontaneous, meaning that there is no external trigger for the episode of angioedema.
A blood and/or genetic test can help identify non-histaminergic angioedema.
However, it is more common to have the blood test.
Non-histaminergic angioedema is not a common, affecting only about 1 in 50,000 people.
Imaging
Imaging is not normally helpful in diagnosing angioedema.
Differential Diagnosis
There are a few other conditions that may produce symptoms similar to those of angioedema.
Infection or Injury
Edema is swelling of any part of the body.
Like angioedema, edema due to injury or infection may also involve only an isolated region of the body.
Heart or Kidney Failure
The edema of heart failure orkidney failureis usually gradual.
Most of the time, edema is not the first symptom of these conditions.
The edema of angioedema is not pitting, while edema of heart failure or kidney failure is pitting edema.
Like angioedema, it may be sudden, painless, and asymmetric.
A DVT can cause a pulmonary embolism, resulting in a respiratory emergency.
A DVT is not expected to be accompanied by swelling of the lips or eyes.
Some medications can producelymphedemaas well.
Unlikehives (urticaria), which affect the outermost layers of skin, angioedema affects underlyingsubcutaneousor submucosal tissues.
As a result, the area of swelling tends to be larger.
Angioedema causes large welts with generally ill-defined borders that develop over the course of minutes to hours.
The eyes, lips, and cheeks are most commonly affected.
There may be skin warmth and pain, although the swelling itself is not itchy.
Intestinal angioedema is a rare subtype that affects the submucosal tissues of the bowel wall.
Allergic angioedema usually occurs within 60 minutes of exposure to anallergenand lasts for one to two days.
Hereditary forms of angioedema can occur spontaneously and often takes two to three days to resolve.
Over-the-counter or prescriptionantihistaminesare sometimes used to relieve swelling resulting from an allergy.
More serious cases may benefit fromcorticosteroidslikeprednisoneto temper the overactive immune response.
Both situations are considered medical emergencies requiring emergency treatment.
Tarbox JA, Bansal A, Peiris AN.Angioedema.JAMA.
2022;150(6):1405-1409. doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2022.10.016
Memon R, Tiwari V.Angioedema.
In:StatPearls [Internet].
12:701-11. doi:10.2147/TCRM.S86293
Cleveland Clinic.Hereditary Angioedema.
175(3):126-135. doi: 10.1159/000486312.
39(2):111-115. doi: 10.1016/j.amjoto.2017.12.013.
