Atopic dermatitis and clinical features

Atopic dermatitis and clinical features

Atopic dermatitis and clinical features

The primary and predominant symptom of atopic dermatitis is itching. This sets up a vicious cycle. Itching leads to scratching, scratching causes lichenification, and lichenification lowers the threshold for itch. Three phases are recognized in atopic dermatitis, namely:

Infantile phase The onset is usually in the third month of life. The child is fair, fat, anxious, with shiny eyes, and glassy expression. The face, particularly the cheeks are the usual affected site. The skin is erythematous and dry with few papulovesicles and scant oozing. The course is marked by remissions and relapses. However, it usually disappears by the age 2 years.

Childhood phase The dermatitis recurs between the ages of 4 and 10 years. At this time it tends to localize in the flexural areas, the antecubital and popliteal fossae, neck, eyelids, and behind the ears. The eruption may become generalized. The features are essentially of erythema, edema, vesiculation, and oozing.

Adolescent and adult phase The lesions are dry, lichenified, hyperpigmented plaques in flexor areas, in addition to eruptions elsewhere in the body.The atopic subject may have stigmata and suffer from complications. A linear transverse fold below the edge of lower eyelids, known as Dennie-Morgan's fold is indicative of atopic diathesis. Thinning of the lateral eyebrows, Hertoghes sign is some time present. Cataract may be associated finding. The opacities are unilateral in about half of the cases, and the anterior cortex is twice as often involved as the posterior cortex. Superimposed infections such as verrucae vulgaris, molluscum contagiosum, and dermatophytosis are common. Staphylococcus aureus dominates the skin flora. It colonizes the eczematous lesions of atopic dermatitis. There is increased susceptibility to generalized herpes simplex infection resulting in Kaposi's varicelliform eruption.

POST COMMENT

Genghis Kahn Mongolian Hordes and Controlling Your Own Destiny How Can I Tell The Difference Between A Sore Pimple And A Cold Sore On My Lip? - Best Cold Sore Trea What To Consider Before You Buy Laminate Flooring: A Look At Pros And Cons Are You Baking with the Best Gadgets? The Steps To Surviving And Healing After Infidelity Stocks Slide For Second Day 38 weeks and no signs of labor Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: A Right to Die OR Kill to Right Read This - Jelqing Before And After - What To Expect Get Rid Of Pimples-How To Prevent Pimples From Ruining Your Face and Social Life Benjamin Millipied and Natalie Portman are Together Penny Stock Watch List for the week of July 5th 2010: QASP, ARSC, CDIV, ATNP, SBRH, TDGI, KATX, SSWC, BUGS, and MOPN Stockton Heath Residents' Shock and Awe at Santa Snaffling Sneaky Thieves