Friday, January 15, 2010

Velvet

Challenge: What is shown here, and what does it signify?

Image shown under Fair Use.

3 comments:

tree said...

Acanthosis nigricans: insulin resistance

sid said...

This is Acanthosis Nigricans.. It is a marker of insulin resistance.. in some cases it may be a marker of internal malignancy as well (not directly a metastatic manifestation, but indicative of underlying malignancy)

Craig said...

yes, i know it was too easy :P. nice point on the internal malignancy!
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Velvet

Acanthosis nigricans is associated with obesity, insulin resistance, type II diabetes mellitus, and certain cancers (gastrointestinal and lung). Lesions are gray-brown to black, rough, with thickened plaques and prominent skin lines occurring in flextural areas (axillae, back and sides of neck, inguinal creases, inframammary). The texture is velvety.

Sources: UpToDate; dermimages.med.jhmi.edu.