Shortly, there are two forms of it: cutaneous and systemic.

• if one is lucky, he'll get Mastocytosis (and it will be Urticaria Pigmentosa, cutaneous form) as a newborn baby and therefore has a chance to get rid of it as he reaches adulthood
• less lucky people will either have Mastocytosis for the rest of their life, or will develop it during adulthood, but the form will remain cutaneous
• unlucky ones will develop systemic form which is potentially lethal

For much more, please follow the provided links.

Everyone who should ever have suspicion about having mastocytosis, visit The Mastocytosis Society (TMS) pages on Internet. Beside all the valuable information you can find, there's a great possibility to chat with other patients/caregivers, which provides such a relief just by knowing you're not alone with the illness. Many of TMS members also use ICQ, so try to find them by entering their e-mail addresses (you can see those addresses using TMS Chat Line, for example) into "Add User" form while in ICQ.

Krsto was suspected to have mastocytosis at the age of 4 months; it was proved to be Urticaria Pigmentosa. Tests that would tell if it has a systemic form as well (such as bone marrow biopsy) we didn't do; we just hope and pray that he is "in" in about half the young children affected whose symptoms disappear as they reach adulthood.