A rash is a change of the skin which affects its color, appearance or texture. A rash may be localized in one part of the body, or affect all the skin. Rashes may cause the skin to change color, itch, become warm, bumpy, chapped, dry, cracked or blistered, swell and may be painful. The causes, and therefore treatments for rashes, vary widely. Diagnosis must take into account such things as the appearance of the rash, other symptoms, what the patient may have been exposed to, occupation, and occurrence in family members. The diagnosis may confirm any number of conditions.
The presence of a rash may aid associated signs and symptoms are diagnostic of certain diseases. For example, the rash in measles is an erythematous, morbilliform, maculopapular rash that begins a few days after the fever starts. It classically starts at the head and spreads downwards.
Read more about Rash: Differential Diagnosis, Diagnostic Approach, Overview of Symptoms, Treatment
Famous quotes containing the word rash:
“Have you not love enough to bear with me,
When that rash humor which my mother gave me
Makes me forgetful?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last,
For violent fires soon burn out themselves;
Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“If the hive be disturbed by rash and stupid hands, instead of honey, it will yield us bees.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)