broken blood vessels

When I was younger I used to use tanning lotion with high amounts of tingle.  Now I have red blotchey areas on my arms and my chest.  It looks like tiny broken blood vessels.  I do not tan at all in these areas.  From my chest down I tan easily, but my chest and arms do not tan at all.  I had the places lasered a little over 4 years ago and when I got pregnant with my daughter which is 2 yrs old now they came back.  Thank for any suggestions.

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
From the symptoms these sound like superficial veins or telangiectasia.Superficial veins are visible in normal fair skinned persons. Telangiectasia are small dilated blood vessels near the surface of the skin or mucous membranes. It can be due to venous hypertension, sun or cold exposure, skin trauma, carcinoid syndrome or CREST syndrome.

Sclerotherapy and laser treatment are the two main treatment options. Please discuss these treatment options with your dermatologist.
It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your dermatologist. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.