Today was a weirdly well-bookended day. It was the first morning report of the new academic year. This is when all the available pediatrics residents, attendings, and medical students meet in a conference room for half an hour for a presentation by a senior resident. The subject matter is an interesting or informative patient case paired with some brief teaching on the associated topic.
Today's was a case of poison ivy with an academic bonus nugget about autoeczematization. I immediately noted that word down to be the topic for my "TIL" fact of the day. I put it out of my mind and went about my day.
I had a full day at the outpatient pediatrics office I'm stationed at for the month. The very last patient of the day was a sick visit with a chief complaint of a rash. After maybe 10 seconds in the room it was immediately apparent that he had a case of... you guessed it... autoeczematization.
So, without further ado:
TIL: Autoeczematization is the development of a generalized rash that is removed from the inciting event by location and/or time. For instance, a person can get a small patch of poison oak on their arm, but then a few days later develop a different, eczema-like rash on their chest, abdomen, face, and legs.
In an autoinflammatory process, the body tries to target the insulting foreign substance but accidentally targets damaged parts of the skin found in the same area. The immune system then seeks out these skin structures and causes a rash all over the body (since there is skin everywhere). Worse yet, the rash is itchy, but any itching just releases more of the mistaken skin target structures for the immune system to attack, resulting in even more rash.
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