Urticaria as a Sign of Viral Hepatitis

Acute urticaria is a clinical clue to viral hepatitis as is emphasized in this report of three patients. It may develop during either the prodromal phase of the disease or in the icteric phase, assuming added diagnostic significance in the latter. Although the urticariogenic mechanism is unknown, there is a close temporal association of the urticaria and the hepatitis, whether it be of serum, infectious, or mononucleosis origin. Inasmuch as two of the three patients were drug addicts, it is apparent that heroin users who develop urticaria should be carefully studied to exclude hepatitis as well as drug allergy.