Dermatology

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Allergy testing can aid the diagnosis of allergic disorders; however, it is not diagnostic. With skin testing, in particular, a positive result does not necessarily indicate clinical allergy, and a negative result does not always exclude clinical relevance.

Bullous impetigo caused multiple areas of denuded skin, consisting of ruptured bullae with underlying erythema, on the face, lower abdomen, and thighs in this infant.

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is the most common type of diabetes encountered in children. The incidence of T1DM in children is increasing in some populations. Early recognition of symptoms of T1DM is critical to avoid life-threatening metabolic decompensation. Such symptoms can include polyuria, polydipsia, fatigue, weight loss, urinary tract infection, vaginal candidiasis, and “fruity” breath. In the presence of clinical symptoms of hyperglycemia, diagnosis requires just 1 laboratory blood glucose measurement above the established threshold for the child’s age. In the absence of typical symptoms, a second abnormal blood glucose measurement on a different day is needed.

Acanthosis Nigricans

A 5-ft 1-in, 183-lb 14-year-old girl was concerned about the areas of thickened hyperpigmentation on her posterior neck and in her cleavage.

The areas of hyperpigmentation shown here on the trunk of a 15-year-old girl appeared 2 years earlier as 1- to 2-mm hyperpigmented papules with either flat or verrucous surfaces.

A 5-year-old girl presented with a 2-day history of a widespread pruritic rash that began while the family was on vacation. The rash appeared suddenly as small pink macules and progressed to papules and pustules. Her brother had a similar-appearing but milder rash. She denied fever, chills, or constitutional symptoms. On further questioning, her father reported that she and her brother had been in a hot tub at their vacation home.

A 6-year-old girl has peeling soles on her feet. Although the peeling is not usually symptomatic, her feet become cracked, fissured, tender, and occasionally infected during the middle of the winter and summer.

An 11-year-old girl presents to the clinic with a lesion under the tongue of 3 weeks' duration. She complains of a "mass sensation" while eating and speaking but has no difficulty with swallowing.

A 10-month-old breast-feeding boy was taken to the emergency department (ED) with a temperature of 40°C (104°F). Because he was on day 7 of treatment with amoxicillin for a previously diagnosed ear infection, unresolved otitis media was diagnosed.

One week earlier, a 14-month-old girl with a history of eczema was evaluated because of a diffuse rash of excoriated lesions, some of them purulent. She was afebrile. Worsening eczema with secondary infection was diagnosed. Treatment with oral clindamycin was prescribed. At follow-up, the lesions had worsened. The child had multiple excoriated papules, some of which had coalesced into plaques. She also had two 5-mm vesicles on her right shoulder. Eczema herpeticum was diagnosed clinically. Culture of the vesicles later grew herpes simplex virus (HSV).

These hypopigmented, mildly pruritic lesions on the right arm of a 7-year-old African American girl appeared several weeks ago. She had no other lesions and was otherwise healthy. The diagnosis on the basis of the clinical presentation was lichen striatus.