Intended for healthcare professionals

Diagnostic difficulties

An examination of the entire skin, including the scalp, nails and mucous membranes, is essential as the diagnosis of skin disease involves an appreciation of several features: the pattern of distribution of lesions, the morphology of individual lesions and whether or not the nails, mucous membranes and/or scalp are involved. Description of an individual skin lesion is often perceived to be difficult by non-dermatologists, but if time is taken to formally describe the lesion, the diagnosis often becomes clear.
Dermatology in practice 2003; 11(2): 6–10
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