Skin & its pathology Flashcards
What can benign lesions show as on the skin?
- skin tags
- moles
- cysts
- papilloma’s
What are fibroepithelial polyps?
- flesh coloured bag like lesion
- generally in middle age and older people
What is a naevi?
moles
- proliferation of melanocytes
What is a sebaceous cyst?
- cysts derived from skin layers
- more common in hairy areas
- usually round and small
- causes are blocked cyst or gland or swollen hair follicle
- two types pilar and epidermal
in sebaceous cysts what is the difference between pilar cyst and epidermal cyst?
- pilar is wet
What is a seborrheic keratosis caused by?
- sun damaged skin
What is basal cell carcinoma?
- effects the basal layer
At what rate does a basal cell carcinoma grow?
slow growing
rarely metastasize
What can a basal cell carcinoma look like?
- appears at sun exposed skin
- looks pearly and may contain more blood vessels
What is Bowens disease?
- precursor to squamous cell carcinoma
- due to sun damage
- thickened epidermis
What is squamous cell carcinoma caused by ?
- appears on sun exposed sites in older people
How does squamous cell carcinoma appear on the skin?
it is a mole/naevi
How do you measure a melanoma? A,B,C,D,E
Asymmetry Border- irregular Colour - variable pigmentation in lesion Diameter- normally under 6mm Enlarge
How does a melanoma arise?
through sun damage
At what rate does a melanoma spread?
very aggressive and can spread widely
Eczema is a clinical term that encompasses many different conditions. What are its features?
- it means to boil over
- itching, burning, rash, blisters
Where does psoriasis normally effect the body?
elbows, knees, scalp, lumbosacral area and glens penis
what can psoriasis be associated with?
- nail changes
- arthritis
- myopathy (disease of muscle tissue)
- enteropathy (GI tract disease)
- spondylic joint disease (degenerative disease of the spine)
How does psoriasis look?
well demarcated
salmon pink plaques with silver scaling
What happens in psoriasis?
- skin keeps regenerating
What is scabies caused by?
- caused by human scabies mites
Scabies id common in the young and elderly. How is it spread?
- spread by direct skin to skin contact
What is seen in scabies?
mites are found mainly in the web spaces of the fingers and on the palms of the hands, the wrist, ankles and soles of the feet
- burrows appear as small greyish lines on the skin
What are the symptoms of meningitis?
- headache
- stiff neck
- dislike of bright light
- aching limps and cold hands and feet
- develop rash of tiny pink prinks which can rapidly develop into purple bruising
- non blanching rash
What bacteria is the majority of meningitis caused by ?
meningococcal septicaemia
- this is the one where you will develop the non blanching rash
