Tag Archives: Moles

Dr. C "Comments", Medicine, Videos

Skin Cancers: ABCDE’s Of Melanoma (Mayo Clinic)

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Moles are a common skin growth, and most are harmless. But changes in moles and other pigmented patches may be the sign of skin cancer, particularly melanoma.

When it comes to early detection, just remember the ABCDEs.

“A” is for asymmetry.

“You want moles to be perfectly symmetrical, such that you could put a mirror right down the middle of it and the image would look the same,” says Dr. Catherine Degesys, a Mayo Clinic dermatologist.

“B” stands for border.

“You want a nice crisp edge to these pigmented lesions and no scalloped edges or indistinct edges,” says Dr. Degesys.

“C” is for color.

“In general, you want moles to be a homogenous color and not have multiple different pigmented areas,” Dr. Degesys adds.

“D” represents the mole’s diameter. Pigmented lesions being greater than 6 millimeters potentially need further evaluation.

“E” is probably the most important, and that corresponds with evolution, says Dr. Degesys.

“Any pigmented lesion or any moles that are changing are something that really needs to be evaluated by a dermatologist.”

COMMENTARY:

Melanoma is a devastating disease, and must be picked up early to give you any chance.

The memnomic A-B-C-D-E is a reminder of the things you must watch in a dark freckle, or nevus, in order to suspect melanoma. Symmetry, border, color, diameter, and evolution reminds you of things that will alert you.

A-B-C is also a good mnemonic when it comes to evaluating an unconscious person, in order to address the order in which to proceed. Here, it is Airway, Breathing and Circulation. If the airway is blocked, it doesn’t matter whether or not the person is breathing, or the heart is beating, because if you’re not able to move air in and out of the lungs, the breathing attempts and heartbeat will do no good. Secondly, if you’re not breathing, the heart pumping will do no good. Another memnomic is A-B-CPR.

The third memnomic has to do with psychology. Here, it is Affect, Behavior and Cognition. Most activities of the brain can be put into one of these three different areas.

I’m sure there must be more memnomics in a world such as ours, and if you know of any, I would appreciate knowing about them.

—Dr. C.

Men's Health, Opinion, Women's Health

THE DOCTORS 101 CHRONIC SYMPTOMS & CONDITIONS #36: WARTS

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Warts are so common as to have become a metaphor for any blemish. I have had several warts in childhood, most likely because my immunity was immature along with the rest of me. They went away, as do most warts. I have had a few warts on and off since, since the HPV that produces them is so widespread.

My immune reaction took care of them, For some reason, I now have a wart between my toes that bears watching. Hopefully it will go away like the rest. Warts rarely become malignant, They can cause problems with breathing if they block the airway, such as the larynx (voice box) or bronchi (breathing tubes). I had such a case in my Allergy/respiratory disease practice that sounded like asthma to the referring Doctor.

Elderly people can develop a variety of skin bumps, that my grandmother called “moles”. In the past month, I have developed a reddish bump on my nose. It looks a lot like the “intradermal nevus” pictured in an accompanying article from “consultant360”. Seborrheic Keratoses are common, and I have some of those too. Of course,

I have a regular crop of scaly “actinic Keratoses” for my Dermatologist to freeze with liquid Nitrogen during my twice yearly visits to prevent them from developing into cancer. I have a suspicion that many home remedies for warts, and the scraping and freezing efforts of dermatologists merely stir up the infected cells in the lesion and incite the immune system to mop up.

Time will usually do the job, but they are often annoying and there is always the temptation to treat them.

–Dr. C.

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