What can you learn from rashes? An approach for children.

Abstract

Rashes cause a great deal of concern to parents and are often dismissed as either inconsequential or confusing by health care practitioners. While the majority of rashes have trivial consequences, others are manifestations of serious and potentially fatal disease. A careful evaluation of a rash can be extremely rewarding. Serious diseases can be diagnosed with a reasonable degree of certainty and appropriate therapy rapidly instituted. For example, Kawasaki disease often presents with fever and a rash and failure to recognize it in time and give intravenous gammaglobulin will result in coronary artery aneurysms in 20Yo of patients. In contrast, parents can often be reassured of the benign nature of many rashes.