Contact hive and cold hive are two relatively common types of physical hives.

Contact hive, are limited to a small area  and they have swelling and redness.  This happnes after the patient comes in  direct contact with certain offending stimuli. There are plenty of reports of contact hives  being caused by a variety of compounds such as foods, preservatives, fragrances, plant and animal products, and metals.

Cold hive appear in the form of wheals after the skin is exposed to extremely low temperature. The two basic types of cold hives are familial cold hives (sometimes also called inherited cold hives) and acquired cold hives.

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