Viral Skin Disease A lady had recently experienced an anxiet

Viral Skin Disease

A lady had recently experienced an anxiety attack and was psychologically and emotionally distraught due to the passing of her youngest son. She had a history of dermatitis from her early childhood but was overall very healthy. She was also feeling fatigued and complained of an upset stomach. She decided to take a nap before work with hopes of becoming a little more energetic. Upon arising from her nap, she felt tingling and a burning sensation on the left side of her lower back. She reported to work, at the nursing home, and after a number of hours she felt feverish and noticed an itchiness in the same area of her lower back and a worsening of the burning sensation. She asked the nurse to assess the area of her complaint. The nurse noticed a reddened excoriated area and asked my grandmother if she had a history of atopic dermatitis. After arriving at home, my grandmother applied triamcinolone cream to her lower back. The medicine she used for her eczema. The application of the steroid appeared to alleviate the itching sensation but did nothing to resolve the discomfort or the burning and tingling, which had increased in intensity.

The next morning there was a rash that had developed and blisters forming in the lower back area, which my grandmother described as a fiery feeling and highly inflamed. She decided to go to the emergency room and after assessment of the area of complaint the doctor immediately asked if my grandmother had ever had chickenpox. She explained to him that she had chickenpox as a child and questioned if that had any correlation with the rash that was currently on her lower back. The doctor described that after having chickenpox, the virus remains dormant and later in life is able to reactivate. The doctor sent her home with prednisone which she had taken consistently for 7 days and the blisters eventually scaled healed.

1) What is most likely the diagnosis of this patient?

2) What are the signs and symptoms? What are the complications?

Solution

1. The most likely diagnosis of this patient is severe psoriasis based on the symptoms she is experienced. Prednisone is a corticosteroid drug which is majorly used as immunosuppressant but it is also used as a drug in skin diseases like psoriasis.

2. Psoriasis is an autoimmune disorder where rapid skin cell reproduction results in raised red and scaly patches of skin. The symptoms range from mild, faint, small dry skin patches to severe psoriasis where the entire body of the patient may be covered with thick, red, scaly skin plaques. The causes this disorder are unknown but there seems to be a genetic predisposition to inheriting the illness.