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Skin redness
Alexey Kryvenko, medical expert
Last reviewed: 07.07.2025
Last reviewed: 07.07.2025
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Redness of the skin is observed in the following conditions:
- As the temperature of the forehead increases, the skin usually turns slightly pink due to the expansion of small arteries and arterioles, which helps to increase heat transfer.
- In people with a labile autonomic nervous system, blanching and reddening of the skin may alternate due to fluctuations in tone and, consequently, blood filling of small arteries and arterioles of the skin.
- With erythrocytosis, the skin takes on a dark cherry hue, which is associated with an increase in the content of erythrocytes in the blood and the specific gravity of reduced hemoglobin.
- On the palms, it is possible to detect bright red erythema in the area of the elevations of the thumb and little finger (the so-called palmar erythema, or “liver palms”), which is observed in chronic liver diseases and systemic vasculitis.
- Hyperemia (redness) of the skin, especially local, accompanied by pain, increased local skin temperature and swelling, is a classic sign of an inflammatory process (for example, erysipelas).
- Redness of the skin can be observed with various infectious diseases, such as flu.
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