Sometimes, a patient minimizes the symptoms of his or her illness, while at other times a condition can be glaringly evident and frankly observable to all. Both of these seemingly opposite situations occurred simultaneously in this case of a rare skin condition.
A 27-year-old man with a medical history of atopic dermatitis presented with a progressively disseminating non-pruritic rash that had been present for 3 days. The rash had begun on the left cheek and had spread quickly to involve the rest of the face and body. The patient had no other complaints, and the rash was not painful or irritating, but the fact that “people were staring” when he went to the grocery store bothered him so much that he sought medical care at our emergency department.
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— Maryrose Laguio, MD, Glynis Scott, MD, Mary Gail Mercurio, MD, Peter Mariuz, MD
This article originally appeared in the September 2011 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.
