Author: Dr Ian Coulson, Consultant Dermatologist and Editor-in-Chief, 2023.
Edited by the DermNet content department
This 69-year-old woman has noticed a rash over her upper chest in the last 2 years. It is non-itchy.
She has long-standing hypertension, and takes a calcium channel blocker and an ACE inhibitor for this. Her liver function tests are normal.
There is striking telangiectasia over the light-exposed area of her upper chest.
The likely cause is amlodipine-induced phototelangiectasia. Telangiectasia in light-exposed areas has been reported with nifedipine and diltiazem, although it has had a more common association with amlodipine. In some cases, its resolution has been noted after substitution of the calcium channel antagonist with a different class of antihypertensive.
