Thursday, April 30, 2015

Not Yawns

A young immigrant from Ghana where he lived in crowded camps presents with the lesion seen below:


This is the "mother lesion"; note the red, moist base reminiscent of a raspberry ("framboesia"). It will heal in 3 to 6 months when it will regress into a depigmented pitted scar with dark margins. The patient also complains of arthralgias. Exam shows regional lymphadenopathy and palmar and plantar hyperkeratotic plaques.

Challenge: What's your diagnosis?

Image shown under Fair Use.

1 comment:

Craig said...

Not Yawns

Yaws is caused by Treponema pallidum subsp pertenue (as opposed to subsp pallidum which causes venereal syphilis).

Source: UpToDate.