Saturday, February 28, 2009

Diseases Don't Read Textbooks

Abstact: 5 yo girl with enlarging plaque on back.

HPI: The patient is a 5 year old girl seen on February 27, 2009 with a 10 day history of an enlarging plaque on the left back. She had a similar, but less dramatic lesion in April 2008 which was treated with cefuroxime for two weeks. Her family lives in a wooded area and her mother had Lyme Disease last year. The patient feels well, may have had some mild arthralgias according to her mother. No neurological symptoms. She is allergic to penicillin, amocicillin and sulfonamides.

O/E: 17 x 12 cm plaque left back. 2 x 2 cm plaque right arm. These lesions are somewhat urticarial in appearance. The center of the larger lesion is paler than the periphery.

Photos:


Lab: Lyme titers pending

Diagnosis: Presumptive Lyme Disease. She was started on cefuroxime by her pediatrician.
Questions:
1) What else would you consider in the differential diagnosis
2) Can one have ECM more than once? This child had something similar 10 months ago.
3) Presuming this is Lyme -- how long shoud she be treated?

Reasons Presented: Lyme Disease is unusual in the winter. Can one have "primary lesions" with a reoccurence? In a young patient where tetracyclines are contraindicated with a proven allergy to penicillins, what is the best third line drug and how long to administer.

2 comments:

  1. My friends had a similar skin disease its a plaque,she doesn't eat shrimp coz her plaque getting irritated,so its better that don't eat a bad for your disease. :-).

    by: sphin

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 06, 2009

    Please edit Lime to Lyme

    ReplyDelete

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