Hailey-Hailey disease (chronic benign familial pemphigus) is a rare inherited dermatosis typically characterized by erosions at intertriginous sites preceded by minor trauma or stress. We report a case of treatment-resistant Hailey-Hailey disease having failed topical and oral steroids, prophylactic aciclovir and doxycycline, and systemic therapies including dapsone, acitretin and ciclosporin. Low-dose naltrexone 4·5 mg once daily was commenced following an incidental benefit in this patient's similarly affected sister. The clinical and psychological response to date has been considerable.
Background Educators have been challenged to provide more effective dermatology teaching methods. Drawing from the discipline of Applied Behaviour Analysis, Precision Training (PT) (e.g. using flashcards during timed learning sessions) can promote fluency i.e. accuracy and speed in a particular skill. We aimed to determine the impact of PT on medical students' dermatology diagnostic skills. Methods A between-groups controlled interventional study was conducted. Third year medical students were allocated to an intervention (PT + traditional teaching) or control (traditional teaching) group. For the PT group, we designed 50 dermatological image flashcards. Flashcard practice (using the Say All Fast Minute Each Day Shuffle method) took place 2-3 times/day and students' data on accuracy recorded over 5 days. Pre / post-training tests were carried out to determine the impact of PT on students' diagnostic skills. Results In total, 70 students (intervention group) / 65 (control group). Analysis of covariance was used to calculate the change score (comparing pre-and post-test). A statistically significant improvement of 8.8% (95% CIs; 4.9-12.7, p<0.001) was detected in the intervention group.
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