Correlation and agreement of self-assessed and objective skin disease severity in a cross-sectional study of patients with acne, psoriasis, and atopic eczema.

Background: Previous studies have shown variable correlation of patients' self-assessed skin severity measures and clinician-assessed objective measures of severity. But, generally, correlation has not been as good as might be expected for conditions in which the objective physical extent of skin disease is apparent to the sufferer to an extent that is not applicable in many other diseases.

Methods: This paper reports agreement and correlation of self-assessed and objective severity measures in a study of 108 subjects with acne, psoriasis, or atopic eczema.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis in a child treated with oral fluconazole.

We report a case of cutaneous leishmaniasis in a 3-year-old West African girl with a 3-month history of multiple disfiguring, infiltrated, ulcerating and variably necrotic granulomatous plaques on the limbs and face that occurred after swimming in a river approximately 6 weeks before arriving in Australia. A diagnosis of cutaneous leishmaniasis, a protozoal zoonosis usually transmitted by the Phlebotomus species of sandfly, was considered. The clinico-pathological features were consistent with Leishmania major infection, known to be the major endemic species causing cutaneous leishmaniasis in the country of origin.