Publications by authors named "Richard Sontheimer"

Article Synopsis
  • Superficial granulomatous pyoderma gangrenosum is a rare skin condition that typically appears as a single lesion on the trunk, but this case involves a patient with widespread lesions.
  • The patient, who had chronic and painful ulcerations on sun-exposed areas, presented a diagnostic challenge due to the unusual characteristics of the condition and resistance to common treatments.
  • Ultimately, the skin lesions improved significantly after starting adalimumab, a medication that the patient had not responded to previous treatments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE), a subtype of chronic cutaneous lupus may be observed in a linear pattern. A 21-year-old woman with history of chronic granulomatous disease state presented to our clinic for a chronic six-year skin eruption on her left eyebrow, left cheek, and left forehead. A punch biopsy of involved left forehead skin was performed and revealed perivascular and periadnexal lymphohistiocytic infiltrate without features of morphea or panniculitis, confirming the histopathologic changes of cutaneous lupus erythematous.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Morphea presenting clinically with nodular or keloidal skin changes is extremely rare. Nodular scleroderma or keloidal morphea presenting in a linear distribution is even more uncommon. We present an otherwise healthy young woman with unilateral, linear, nodular scleroderma and review the somewhat confounding earlier literature in this area.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Darier disease (DD) is a rare autosomal dominant keratinizing disorder often characterized by brown scaly pruritic papules over the face, neck, and trunk. Herein is reported a patient who developed secondary cutaneous herpes simplex virus (HSV) following exacerbation of his DD as a result of radiation therapy. In November 2020, a 78-year-old man presented to clinic for a pruritic rash on his back consistent with DD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE) is a disfiguring and potentially disabling disease that causes significant morbidity in patients. Antimalarials are an important class of medication used to treat this disease and have been the first-line systemic therapy since the 1950s. Quinacrine, in particular, is used as an adjuvant therapy to other antimalarials for improved control of CLE.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Gel nails are a common artificial nail option. Ultraviolet (UV) nail lamps are commonly used to cure gel nails. Ultraviolet A radiation is a known mutagen that penetrates into the nail bed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

James Neil Gilliam, MD, was an American academic physician who was trained in internal medicine, dermatology, dermatopathology and rheumatology. This "quadruple-threat" profile of postgraduate medical training provided him with a rather unique perspective on genetically-complex, environmentally-impacted human autoimmune disorders such as lupus erythematosus (LE). Both the skin and vital internal organs can be damaged by LE autoimmunity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

It is now widely accepted that long-term aminoquinoline antimalarial therapy with hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) can mitigate one of the most important comorbidities of systemic lupus erythematosus (LE)-atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Increasing evidence suggests that idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM) patients have a risk for ASCVD comorbidity that is similar to that of systemic LE. I would like to explore the primary hypothesis that long-term HCQ therapy could provide those with IIM, especially dermatomyositis (DM) patients, an ASCVD comorbidity benefit similar to that of systemic LE.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aging individuals can develop generalized, exquisitely-pruritic, eczematous eruptions of uncertain etiology that can be therapeutically-refractory and life-altering. Limited information exists in the literature to guide clinicians in the diagnosis and management of such patients. It is suggested that in approximately 40% of such patients a known cause for their chronic pruritic eruptions cannot be identified.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Identifying the drug(s) responsible for drug-induced chronic eczematous eruptions of aging individuals (CEEA) is a clinical challenge in patients on multiple medications. Reliable testing methods and biomarkers are needed to identify the causative agent and allow simultaneous assessment of T-cell responses to multiple drugs being taken concurrently. This study examined the feasibility of using , drug-specific T cell activation responses as a biomarker for drug-induced CEEA.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Allenbach and colleagues have recently reported for the first time the results of an intriguing study of the histopathologic, immunopathologic and gene expression differences in muscle biopsy tissue from adult dermatomyositis (DM) patients who do and do not have circulating MDA5 autoantibodies (anti-MDA5). Anti-MDA5 were originally identified in a clinically-defined subset of DM patients whose disease was expressed predominately in the skin for unusually long periods of time without accompanying muscle weakness [i.e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: It has been over three decades sincethe first report of drug-induced subacute cutaneouslupus erythematosus (DI-SCLE) was described. Withan increasing variety of implicated drugs and thepotential for publication bias, we must consider: 1) hasthere been a change in drugs most often reported inDI-SCLE over time, and, 2) if so, of which drugs shouldclinicians be most suspicious in the setting of possibleDI-SCLE?

Objective: To determine which drug(s) present thehighest risk for inducing DI-SCLE.

Methods: The PubMed database was queried forreports of DI-SCLE from August, 2009 until May,2016.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Importance: Many patients present with cutaneous signs and symptoms that suggest a diagnosis on the autoimmune disease spectrum. During the "acute phase" of disease activity, patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and dermatomyositis (DM) have characteristic nailfold findings, including dilated capillaries, microhemorrhages, and hemosiderin deposits.

Objective: To review the literature on the presentation of microhemorrhages and to highlight the differences (in terms of terminology, characterization, and clinical relevance) between proximal microhemorrhage events and the distal products, often thought of as "hemosiderin deposits" located in the cuticle (eponychium).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The cost of prescription medicines has recently been rising faster than other healthcare costs.  This is also true for traditionally inexpensive generic medications that have long served as a fundamental healthcare safety net in the USA.  These changes increasingly present challenges for individuals to obtain common medications.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Importance: Dermatologists frequently encounter patients of advanced age presenting with chronic eczematous eruptions of uncertain etiology. When a drug-induced cutaneous eruption is suspected, identifying the responsible drug(s) is a complex clinical challenge.

Objective: To determine whether certain drug classes, and in particular calcium channel blockers, are associated with chronic eczematous eruptions in the aging (CEEA) in the United States.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The objective of this review is to summarise the published evidence that supports the existence of amyopathic dermatomyositis (ADM) and its clinical significance including risk for rapidly progressive, fatal interstitial lung disease (ILD) and possible risk for internal malignancy. By establishing such inherent risks, we hope to establish the importance of formally recognising ADM as a subset of dermatomyositis (DM). Population-based epidemiologic studies have suggested that amyopathic DM might account for 20% of the total population of dermatomyositis (DM) patients (1).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nasal vestibular furunculosis is a mucocutaneous disorder commonly seen in the general population. Despite its prevalence in clinical practice, it has been inconsistently described and labeled in the medical literature. We present a case of nasal vestibular furunculosis presenting as recurrent exquisitely tender unilateral erythema and edema of the nasal tip (i.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF