بهروز وارث

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common types of chronic disease leading to serious complications such as blindness, end stage renal disease (ESRD), neuropathy and cardiac disorders. Skin tag is a common benign skin tumor that its association with impaired carbohydrate metabolism has been reported in some studies. The aim of this study was to compare the frequency of diabetes and other carbohydrate metabolism disorders in patients with and without skin tag.

In a case- control study on 200 individuals over 30 years old referring to Dermatology Clinic of Afzalipour Hospital, 100 individuals with at least 3 skin tags as case group and 100 individuals without skin tag as control group underwent FBS and standard GTT tests.

There was no significant difference between case and control groups in the frequency of diabetes (19% vs. 10%), IGTT (11%vs.13%) and IFG (19% vs. 15%).Mean FBS and GTT were significantly higher in the case group compared to the control group.There was a positive correlation between the total number of skin tags and mean FBS (r= 0.33, P= 0.001) and GTT (r= 0.37, P= 0.000). The frequency of diabetes in patients with at least 20 skin tags was 45.8%. Positive predictive value, negative predictive value, sensitivity and specificity of skin tag for the diagnosis of diabetes were 19%, 90%, 52% and 65% respectively.

This study revealed that patients with skin tags are at a higher risk of carbohydrate metabolism disorders. Therefore, screening of patients with skin tag for carbohydrate metabolism disorders is recommended.

Atopic dermatitis is a chronic, relapsing, inflammatory and pruritic disease with an inheritable background. Atopic dermatitis patients are susceptible to some infections including viral infections due to the underlying immunological disorders. The purpose of this study is to determine the frequency of wart in children with atopic dermatitis.This is a cross- sectional study which was performed on children aged 1-13 years in kermancity. 61 children with atopic dermatitis referring to the dermatology clinic were consecutively selected as the case group. 60 healthy subjects among the kindergarten and school children were selected as the control group. The frequency of wart was investigated in both case and control groups according to age, gender, sport, public swimming pool bath, personal habits (nail biting, finger or lip sucking) and family history.Sixty one subjects suffering from atopic dermatitis with the mean age and the SD of 62.08 ± 41.58 months (ranging 12-156) were entered in this study. The frequency of male participants was 44.3% while 55.7% of the subjects were females. Nine subjects in the group of atopic dermatitis patients and 5 subjects in the control group were affected with wart. The statistical analysis did not show any significant correlation between the two groups of the study (α2=291.1, P=0.27). From 61 atopic dermatitis children, 36 subjects had a positive family history of dermatitis, asthma, rhinitis, among whom 6 subjects had a family history of wart that was significant for the purpose of this study (X2=14, P=0.00012).The most common and frequent kind of wart was the common type and the most common site of involvement affected with wart was found to be the palmo-plantar area. In this study, there was no meaningful relationship between wart and atopic dermatitis.However, positive family background was the most important risk factor for wart.