When a red face isn't rosacea is everyones doctor checking?

[patty]

I was diagnosed with rosacea by my primary dr. who sent me for more blood tests to test for lupus, and other auto-immune type diseases. I have had more done with my derm, and also a more complete workup done by a rheumotologist. My ANA was on the high side of normal, which is why all the blood work. I've been told I have a mild case of Raynauds, very common in rosaceans from what I see.

[Melissa W]

Hi Kate,

My derm diagnosed rosacea without any workup to rule out other diseases. It wasn't until I got chilblains that the drs ordered the whole series of connective tissue blood tests to R/O all the other stuff. And that was months after I was formally diagnosed with rosacea.

Best wishes,
Melissa

[Froggirl]

It seems to be pretty well accepted in the medical literature that a diagnosis of rosacea can only be made once a multitude of other conditions are first ruled out. My doctor did but i wondering if everyones doctor or derm are ruling these things out to? Especially for people for who redness and flushing are the key symptoms (rather than P&P).

I remember back when i first started getting flushing that the only thing that came up on the internet for flushing was rosacea, but have since found out there are many many things which can look like rosacea, so thought i'd put it out there.

When evaluating patients with rosacea, it is important to exclude the diagnoses of polycythemia vera, photosensitive eruption, lupus erythematosus, mixed connective tissue disease, carcinoid syndrome, systemic mastocytosis, or side effects from long-termfacial application of topical steroids. Since rosacea is typically limited to the face, extra facial erythema is generally an exclusionary sign. Rosacea flushing is associated with burning or stinging but not sweating, lightheadedness, or palpitations.

http://rosacea.ii.net/news/2006/08/red-face-when-flushing-isnt-rosacea.html

Most of these are unlikely or rare but there are also some pretty common conditons that can cause flushing or make it worse, such as allergies, food intolerances, thyroid issues, oestrogen imbalance (for women), lactose intolerance, fructose intolerance and coeliac disease.

Of course all of the above generally cause other symptoms aside from flushing or redness, most commonly GI issues, but some of these can be symptom less, like Coeliac disease, which is why only about 1 in 1000 people are diagnosised with it despite approx 1 in 100 having it. And the fact that lot's of rosacea say they improve when cutting out wheat or dairy products makes me wonder if some of us also have other things going on, aside from rosacea.

Anyway most of these are simple blood tests, so is everyone getting checked out for these things?