Skin Diseases in Chinese Children at a Pediatric Dermatology Center

Abstract

Understanding the pattern of disease referrals is important in the delivery of a service. We followed 331 new referrals at a pediatric dermatology clinic over 12 months. Fifty percent of the patients were female; 293 patients (88.5%) had a single diagnosis and 36 (10.9%) had two diagnoses. Three leading causes for referrals accounted for 60% of the 371 skin diseases encountered: 124 diagnoses (33%) were of eczema, 73 diagnoses (20%) were of nevi, and 22 diagnoses (6%) were of viral warts. The nevi seen included melanocytic, epidermal, sebaceous, and vascular nevi. Skin biopsies were performed in 23 patients (6.9%), and microscopy and culture for fungal infections in 11 patients (3.3%). Forty-one patients (12%) were referred to the laser clinic for assessment of their nevi or pigmented skin lesions. Topical steroids were prescribed in 47% of patients during their follow-ups. Follow-up appointments were offered to 90% of patients. Eczema required the most frequent follow-up. Gender disparity in referrals was evident only in endogenous eczema (odds ratio [OR] 1.64, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.04-2.60 in males; p = 0.033). Girls were more likely to be referred to the laser clinic than boys (OR 2.31, 95% CI 1.10-4.92; p = 0.026). Most dermatologic diagnoses were made on clinical grounds and moderately potent topical corticosteroids were the most commonly prescribed medication. Since chronic skin disorders prevailed in the referrals, repeated follow-up appointments were required.

CDLQI, Scorad and Ness: Are they Correlated?

“…Another limitation also relates to subject selection for the TCM trial. The median (range) age of our patients was 11.3 (5-20) years, which is older compared with the respective data for new cases seen in our outpatient clinic (7.1 ± 4.4 years for boys and 7.5 ± 4.3 years for girls) [26]. Patients younger than 5 years of age were not recruited because of two reasons: these young patients were not able to swallow the TCM capsules and our pilot testing suggested that these children could not provide reliable responses to several CDLQI items including school and daily activities.…”

Spectrum and pattern of pediatric dermatoses in under five population in a tertiary care centre

“…Similar observation has been seen in other studies conducted in referral hospitals. 1,13,15,19 The most common among congenital malformations in our study were capillary hemangioma (2.7% cases), followed by 1.2% cases of congenital melanocytic nevi and 0.8% cases of nevus depigmentoses. Hemangiomas occur in approximately 2.5% of all neonates.…”

“…Similar observations have been reported in other studies also. 1,4,9,11,12,15 Infectious and non-infectious nature of dermatoses depends upon many factors for e.g. type of population studied, location of study centre, climatic and socioeconomic factors, literacy etc.…”

“…1 Hayden et al, Sayal et al, Porter et al have also reported similar incidence in their studies, however studies by Nanda et al, Wenk and Itin et al, Horn et al and Patel et al showed that eczematous dermatoses was the predominant variety. 4,9,10,12,[15][16][17] Of the infective dermatoses, bacterial infections (14.5%) were the most common, followed by parasitic (10.9%), fungal (8.1%) and viral infections (7.6%). Similar pattern has been observed by Sardana et al, Karthikeyan et al and Sharma et al 1,13,18 Hayden et al reported 17.4% incidence and Negi et al reported 15.6% incidence of bacterial infections in their studies.…”

Unusual loss of body hair in childhood: Trichotillomania or alopecia

“…[1][2][3] We report four cases of hair loss with unusual or extensive distribution and discuss the outcome of their management.…”