Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue
- Introduction
- 1 The Case of Black Sweat
- 2 A Case of Hives That Wouldn't Go Away
- 3 The Painful Bath
- 4 A Shower of Hives
- 5 A Premenstrual Rash
- 6 Uncombable Hair
- 7 The Man Who Couldn't Sweat
- 8 Scratch Blisters
- 9 Skin Deep Photography
- 10 The Bug That Never Was
- 11 Blue Spots
- 12 White Spots
- 13 Same Place, Next Time Rash
- 14 The Brown Spots That Wouldn't Go Away
- 15 The Case of the Painful Fingertips
- 16 A Strange Sunburn
- 17 A Multiple Personality Dermatitis
- 18 Accidental Hives
- 19 Rotten Fish Odor
- 20 Hormone Blisters
- 21 Flower Shop Itch
- 22 “Stress and a Penny” Hives
- 23 The Case of Unilateral Wrinkles
- 24 Fiery Red Legs
- 25 Painful Feet
- 26 Hot Flashes and Cold Cream
- 27 The Blisters and the Skin Test
- 28 A Chilling Pain
- 29 Rough Skin and Sore Throats
- 30 The Premenstrual Purple Chin
- 31 Nine Year Hives
- 32 Golf Course Dermatitis
- 33 The Secret Message
- 34 Herpes Gladiatorum
- 35 Sunshine Allergy
- 36 L'homme Rouge
- 37 Rings of Rash
- 38 The Breasts That Never Stopped Growing
- 39 The Minister's Hives
- 40 Hardened Skin
- 41 Battery Blisters
- 42 Swollen Lips
- 43 The Worm from Outer Space
- 44 A New Light on Psoriasis
- 45 Black and Blue Spots
- 46 The Emergency Room Itch
- 47 The Sleeper
- 48 A Crazy Rash
- 49 Bald Spots
- 50 The Dog Died
- 51 The Abacus Tumor
- 52 No Spit
- 53 The Smell of Burnt Toast
- 54 The Twenty-Three Year Itch
- 55 The Mysterious Treatment
- 56 The Creeping Acne Cyst
- 57 Our First Case
- 58 A Strange Case of Acne
- 59 The Case of the Glass Eye
- 60 The Hand Eczema Caper
- 61 The Sore That Would Never Heal
- 62 Black Blisters
- References
- Index
42 - Swollen Lips
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue
- Introduction
- 1 The Case of Black Sweat
- 2 A Case of Hives That Wouldn't Go Away
- 3 The Painful Bath
- 4 A Shower of Hives
- 5 A Premenstrual Rash
- 6 Uncombable Hair
- 7 The Man Who Couldn't Sweat
- 8 Scratch Blisters
- 9 Skin Deep Photography
- 10 The Bug That Never Was
- 11 Blue Spots
- 12 White Spots
- 13 Same Place, Next Time Rash
- 14 The Brown Spots That Wouldn't Go Away
- 15 The Case of the Painful Fingertips
- 16 A Strange Sunburn
- 17 A Multiple Personality Dermatitis
- 18 Accidental Hives
- 19 Rotten Fish Odor
- 20 Hormone Blisters
- 21 Flower Shop Itch
- 22 “Stress and a Penny” Hives
- 23 The Case of Unilateral Wrinkles
- 24 Fiery Red Legs
- 25 Painful Feet
- 26 Hot Flashes and Cold Cream
- 27 The Blisters and the Skin Test
- 28 A Chilling Pain
- 29 Rough Skin and Sore Throats
- 30 The Premenstrual Purple Chin
- 31 Nine Year Hives
- 32 Golf Course Dermatitis
- 33 The Secret Message
- 34 Herpes Gladiatorum
- 35 Sunshine Allergy
- 36 L'homme Rouge
- 37 Rings of Rash
- 38 The Breasts That Never Stopped Growing
- 39 The Minister's Hives
- 40 Hardened Skin
- 41 Battery Blisters
- 42 Swollen Lips
- 43 The Worm from Outer Space
- 44 A New Light on Psoriasis
- 45 Black and Blue Spots
- 46 The Emergency Room Itch
- 47 The Sleeper
- 48 A Crazy Rash
- 49 Bald Spots
- 50 The Dog Died
- 51 The Abacus Tumor
- 52 No Spit
- 53 The Smell of Burnt Toast
- 54 The Twenty-Three Year Itch
- 55 The Mysterious Treatment
- 56 The Creeping Acne Cyst
- 57 Our First Case
- 58 A Strange Case of Acne
- 59 The Case of the Glass Eye
- 60 The Hand Eczema Caper
- 61 The Sore That Would Never Heal
- 62 Black Blisters
- References
- Index
Summary
“My hair is falling out” was the complaint of a forty-five-year-old woman. This is always a difficult challenge for us. First, is the loss real or imagined? There are at least 100,000 hairs on the scalp, and with aging we lose them insidiously. And in the case of women with bouffant coiffuring, 80,000 of these can be lost before the thinning is obvious to anyone but the patient. We have no instrumentation to accurately count the hairs. Assessment is therefore crude, unlike the precision we achieve in counting the invisible red cells in a drop of blood. The number of hairs on sample areas of skin can be counted, but is so painstaking a process as to be impractical, except in a research study of the modern hair growth stimulants, Rogaine® (minoxidil) and Propecia® (finasteride). She could and did count the hairs combed out each day. These far exceeded the normal average daily hair loss of 75 to 100.
We concluded that this patient's hair loss was real. Now came the search for why. The hair was not breaking off, nor did it have loose roots. Her root strength was good when we tugged on her hair. Under the microscope her hair appeared normal. Was it simply aging? Every single one of us no longer has the hair count of our youth. However, that hair loss is gradual and inapparent, whereas this woman knew that her hair had been thinning for only the past few months.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Consultations in DermatologyStudies of Orphan and Unique Patients, pp. 129 - 132Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006