Undiagnosed problem..12 year old NEEDS HELP!

[SidneyWallace]

My wife's niece has been in the hospital for 7 days now. Her symptoms started out like a mosquito bite. A few days later it looked as if she had many, many mosquito bites all over her body. Since then it has gottne worse. She now has blisters all over her body, her whole body is swollen. Her face is swollen so bad that her eyes are swollen shut. She is still able to speak, hear, breathe on her own, etc. But we think it may get worse. Is there anyone who can help? Her team of 5 doctors still can't diagnose the problem. Someone PLEASE HELP!! Any suggestions given here will be communicated straight to her doctors immediately.

[PlateletGal]

This is way too important, so I just checked a website that allows you to type in the symptoms and it gives you a list of possible diagnoses, even rare diseases. It is something you may want to run by her physicians, since they still haven't diagnosed her.

I typed in swelling and blisters ---- this was the list I got:

Behcet's Disease
Bubonic Plague -- very rare and I think you usually only get one blister, where the infected flea bit you. But I'll list it anyway.
Cellulitis
Contact dermatitis
Eczema
Erysipelas
Necrotizing fasciitis
Plague
Wegener's granulomatosis

I'll keep her in my thoughts n' prayers...

[PlateletGal]

P.S. --- How are they treating her ? Are they giving her steriods and antibiotics ?

[RCA7591]

My initial thought is Urticaria, with angioedema as a complication.

An acute allergic reaction is the most likely culprit (but certainly, other possibilities exist).

I would begin by trying Sinequan- Doxepin (a tricyclic antidepressant with powerful anticholinergic properties). Doxepin is extremely effective in treating various forms of acute allergic reactions with no obvious etiology. Benadryl, Atarax, and Phenergan may also prove useful.

Amoung the other possible etiologies are:

-Infectious disease process
-Autoimmune response

To help narrow the down the possibilities, some routine labs would prove beneficial:

Autoimmunity:

-SED rate to assess for inflammation
-C-Reactive Protein to assess for inflammation
-ANA Titer w/Pattern
-Rheumatoid Factor to assess for inflammation

Infectious Process:

-Blood cultures for common bacterial infections (ie: beta strep)
-Serology for particular infectious diseases (Borrelia, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Babesia, Parasites, Malaria, Rheumatic Fever, Infective Endocarditis)
-CBC with differential to indentify an infectious process
-Serology for Hep A/B/C
-Biopsy of the lesion(s) may potentialy identify the offending pathogen.

Corticosteroids should be used only once an infectious process is ruled out, as immunosupression may prove tragic in this case.

-Ryan