Dermoscopy

Skin (history of skin disease, pigment or color change, change in mole, excessive dryness or moisture, pruritus, excessive bruising, rash

A dermatologist is licensed to treat over 3000 skin conditions. He also treats nails, hair, and mucous membranes. He detects and treats serious conditions such as different types of skin cancers, but he also performs procedures to improve appearance. We will just focus on things that can affect our appearance.

The submitted records have been reviewed. The member is an adult female with a birth date of 07/01/1987. She has a diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma. Her treating provider, Semyon Zarkhin, MD recommended DecisionDX Melanoma testing, which was performed on 11/23/2015.

Melanoma being the austere form of skin cancer which can be fatal in most cases. Mayo Clinic’s article on the diseases and conditions of melanoma gives good clarity as to what is actually occurring, and how it forms. The article states that what causes melanoma is unclear and hasn’t been discovered but what takes place is the melanocytes that generate melanin cells is agitated by unknown causes which results in the change in pigmentation of the skin or a change in a current mole already present on the skin. Strategies that can help you detect the symptoms of melanoma consist of the letters “A- E meaning A: asymmetrical shape regarding moles, B: irregular boarders, C: change in color, D: diameter, and E: evolving” (Mayo Clinic Staff 2016) Melanoma can appear not only on the skin but underneath a person’s nail, it can affect their eyesight and rarely their internal organs such as the mouth, urinary tract, and digestive tract called mucosal melanoma. These are noted to be hidden

It’s very specific and detailed with the information that is available, which will greatly help when explaining the key elements in preventing and treating skin cancer in depth. This source does kind of vaguely repeat some general knowledge about skin cancer, so the unique information that is pulled from it may be scarce.

Acral Lentiginous Melanoma or ALM is a rare subtype of melanoma that occurs more often in people of color. It accounts for 2 to 3 percent of the all of the world’s cases of melanoma (Bradford). Dr. R. J. Reed in 1976 was the first to describe it as the appearance of dark lesions on the hands and feet. Radial or lentiginous was the main phase of its growth that lasts several years then it changes into a vertical or dermal invasive stage (Bradford). Several universities have released results on tests on ALM but since it is rare it was difficult for the research groups to get solid information because of small sample sizes. Nonetheless, studies by scientists such as Dr. R. J. Reed we able to determine that the survival rate for three years with the melanoma was on average at 11% (Bradford).

There has been cases where places on your body that don't receive exposure to sunlight has been diagnosed with melanoma. The damage of skin may take place in the few years before the start of the cancer. Children and young adults often get sun exposure that might not result in cancer until many years later. The epidemiology of melanoma is diagnosed at 70 percent of curable stages. However, if melanoma is diagnosed later, the patient has a decreased chance of living. An estimated incidence rate of melanoma has been 3–7% per year for Caucasians. Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer in men and the seventh in women. The pathogenesis of this disease is a neoplasm of melanocytes or a neoplasm of the cells that develop from melanocytes. The treatment for melanoma can be done in stages. Stage zero is a surgery to remove the area of abnormal cells and a small amount of normal tissue around it. Next, stage one of the treatment is having surgery to remove the tumor and some of the normal tissue around it. Stage two of treatment finding the lymph nodes and taking a biopsy. If cancer is found in the sentinel lymph node, a second surgery would need to be carried out to remove more nearby lymph nodes. Then, for stage three, a doctor may take skin grafts to cover the

Identify and practice on common assessment techniques used to help in diagnosis of skin disorders.

Thesis: The knowledge of understanding what skin cancer is and what to look for can

Melasma is not dangerous, but it can be embarrassing and cause people to become self-conscious about their appearance. A visual exam is the most common way to diagnose melasma, but there are some tests we perform to determine how many layers of skin the coloration

A skin biopsy performed in left arm injury showed squamous-crust dermatites, subcorneal spongiform pustule, psoriasiform epidermal hyperplasia and moderate superficial mixed inflammatory infiltrate composed by mononuclear lymphocytes and eosinophils (Figure 2). These findings were compatible with pharmacodermia. There was progressive improvement of skin lesions after one week of the intravenous antibiotic therapy and the higher dose of oral prednisone (Figure 1D). Patient was discharged and prednisone was tapered 10 mg per week until withdrawal.

The different methods that fall under computer-aided diagnosis are more variable in diagnosing different attributes of melanoma as opposed to physicians. In computer diagnosis, patients are able to undergo several, but not all types of noninvasive diagnoses such as teledermatology, mole mapping and monitoring, automated diagnosis of melanoma, computer vision for automatic diagnosis of melanoma, computer vision for noninvasive measurement of the depth of melanomas, and confocal microscopy of histopathology. (Elbaum, 2002) With the variability in types of diagnoses, individuals have the ability to choose what they want view and analyze in regards to their skin, whereas physicians are limited by the methods they utilize (ABCDE, “Ugly Duckling,”

Red, raised, dry, inflamed, scaly areas on the body and the pitting of the nails describe the common appearance of the pathological disease of psoriasis. Doctors often find it difficult to determine psoriasis because it is very similar to other skin disorders. There are several ways to confirm its medical diagnosis, dermatologist may analyze your skin, nails, and scalp (Langley, 2010). A dermatologist is a specialist trained in skin diseases. If not determined by the naked eye, further investigations are needed to determine the type of psoriasis. It can be tested by a biopsy of the skin which is performed by examining the skin under a microscope, x-rays could determine joint swelling or joint deformity, a blood test to determine arthritis, and medical history.

Melasma is a disorder of pigmentation commonly affects women with darker skin types. The Melasma Area and Severity Index (MASI) is the mostly used for melasma studies and was validated 20 years after it was first reported; however, this validation process eliminated homogeneity as a part of the MASI, resulting in the new modified MASI score (mMASI). Despite the development of the mMASIscore, a global severity score is also needed to determine optimal outcomes in clinical trials in melasma. The melasma severity score (MSS) has been used in large trials as a global score. The MSS has 4 grades of severity (clear, mild, moderate, severe), with clear or mild as ideal outcomes

If you decide to undergo melasma laser treatment, then choose an experienced dermatologist for the treatment. Your doctor