A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 2 : $b General diseases (continued) and diseases of the digestive system
Science
A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 2 : $b General diseases (continued) and diseases of the digestive system
Medicine -- Practice
The more persistent inflammatory lesions of the skin, such as eczema
and psoriasis, which are characterized by long-continued hyperæmia with
hyperplasia, are now recognized as among the possible transformations
of gout. They are certainly often observed alternating with arthritic
lesions, and associated with all the characteristic derangements of
nutrition which belong to the gouty habit. The frequency of the various
forms of acne, the inflammatory, as well as those which result from
excessive function of the glands, in persons having a strong gouty
inheritance, is recognized by many dermatologists. I have noticed these
lesions especially in young women belonging to gouty families. They are
generally accompanied by marked dyspeptic symptoms, and not
infrequently by neurotic derangements.
Garrod, in a paper read at the International Medical Congress in 1881
{122} on "Eczema and Albuminuria in Relation to Gout," affirms that
each year strengthens his conviction that gout and eczema are most
closely allied. Since his attention was first called to this relation
in 1860, he has found a gradually increasing percentage of eczema in
the cases of gout that have come under his observation. Dividing all
the cases from 1860 to 1881 into ten groups, he found the percentage
rose from 10 in the first group to 47 in the tenth. He accounts for
this rapid increase in the percentage in the fact that in the first few
years the eczema was only observed when it was very patent; during the
past two or three years he has had made more careful inquiries as to
the presence of eczema or other skin eruption in every case of gout,
and by these means has frequently discovered its presence when it might
otherwise have been overlooked. Garrod believes that eczema is the
special skin-lesion of gouty subjects, and does not regard psoriasis as
having anything more than an accidental connection with gout. He admits
that the latter is often associated with rheumatoid arthritis. It must
be remembered, however, that Garrod does not admit that gout ever
exists without lithatic deposits.
In regard to the location of gouty eczema, it appears to affect by
preference the more tender and vascular regions of the skin. The
eyelids, ears, the scalp, and back of the neck, the fingers and toes,
particularly the dorsal and lateral surfaces, and in old people the
legs, are especially liable to be attacked. The subjective symptoms of
gouty eczema are often the source of great suffering; the burning and
itching are sometimes intolerable. This is especially true of persons
of highly neurotic constitution.
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