Urticaria Due to Drugs of the Digitalis Series

Digitalis Allergy: Review of the Literature and Report of a Case

“…In the majority of cases, however, the authors did not get a positive result (11,12,15,16). In the present case intracutaneous tests with lanacrist, acetyldigitoxin, and dig oxin were negative.…”

“…Other tissues, too, may show symptoms, however. Wolfe and Geiger (16) noted an edema of the bladder with urinary frequency and urgency and Berger (14) and Miescher and Hitter (15) described a case of thrombopenic purpura.-In the present case the allergic symptoms were restricted to the skin. No urinary symptoms and no decrease of thrombocytes, hemoglobin, red or white corpuscles were observed.…”

Digitalis intoxication

“…"8' 19 Similarly, unilateral or bilateral gynaecomastia which develops during digitalis therapy does not seem to be a manifestation of digitalis toxicity although some investigators considered it as such. 14 16 20 This author has seen several patients who have been doing very well without any other toxic manifestations after the development of gynaecomastia in spite of continued digitalis therapy.…”

Digitalis Allergy: A Study of 1,720 Skin Tests on 430 Patients

“…White (1) stated that he had never observed digitalis allergy in the many thousands of cases of heart disease he has seen. Wolfe and Geiger (2), however, however, reported a case of true allergy to digitalis preparations. They administered both highly purified and crude preparations of Digitalis purpurea, Digitalis lanata and squill at various times to an 82‐year‐old woman; urticaria was regularly produced.…”

“…Allergic patients who exhibit toxic reactions to digitalis should be adequately skin tested with the specific antigen. It should be kept in mind that some persons who show no reaction to foxglove antigen may have active symptoms, as in the cases cited by Wolfe and Geiger (2) and Cohen and Brodsky (3). There is still a great deal of confusion and skepticism in regard to skin testing, owing to the changing concepts of the biochemical and cytologic mechanisms of hypersensitivity.…”