Clinical Questions Flashcards
(131 cards)
A women presents with well defined red plaques, with a silvery scale on her elbows and knees.
Plaque psoriasis
What nail signs are you looking for in a patient who presents with symptoms suspicious of psoriasis?
Pitting and onchylyis (separation from the nail bed)
What systemic symptom is is important to ask about in psoriasis patents?
Joint pain
A man presents with clear demarcated pink lesions on his groin and perinanal region. The rash is aggravated by sweat and friction.
Flexural psoriasis
A teenage girl come in complaint of many small lesions on her back and chest. On questioning she reveals she had a soar throat 2 weeks ago.
Guttate psoriasis
A man complains of a psoriatic like lesion on top of a surgical scar. What is this phenomenon called?
Koebner phenomenon
What would be appropriate first line therapies for a patient presenting with psoriasis?
Emolliants Vitamin D analogue (calcitriol) Topical corticosteroids Coal tar preparations Dithranol
Describe how calcitriol works
A vitamin D analogue which inhibits cell proliferation and promotes keratincyte differentiation.
In a patient which psoriasis what do you expect a skin biopsy to show?
Epidermal acanthosis and parakeratosis (increased skin turnover)
Absence of the granular layer
What is hyperkeratosis?
Increased thickness of the keratin layer
What is parakeratosis?
Persistence of nuclei in the keratin layer
What is acanthosis?
Increases thickness of the epidermis
What is papillomatosis
Irregular epithelial thickening
What is spongiosis?
Oedema between keratinocytes
What is meant by an inflammatory cell infiltrate?
Acute or chronic lymphocytes and/or neutrophils.
A 40 year old man with psoriasis has just stopped a 2 week course of prednisolone for his asthma. What life threatening complication is he at risk of?
Erythroderma. (An inflammatory dermatitis over 90% of the skin) which can be fatal
A child presents with a weeping, crusty, golden lesion beside her mouth. Her mum reveals that 4 other children in her nursery have recently had the same appearance.
Impetigo
What is the most common causative organism for impetigo?
Staph aureus
How would you treat a child with staph aureus impetigo?
Oral flucloxacillin 500mg 4x daily for 7 - 10 days
How would you treat a child with a beta haemolytic streptococci impetigo?
Oral phenoxypenicillin 500mg 4 times daily
What advice would you give to the parent of a child with impetigo?
Good personal hygiene (e.g. avoid towel sharing)
Avoid school for 1 week
What bacteria is responsible for staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome?
Staph aureas
What bacteria usually causes cellulitis?
Beta haemolytic streptococci
How would you treat a cellulitis?
Phenoxymethylpenicilllin and flucloxacillin 500mg 4 x daily.