A doctor discovers a discoloration on the little toe of a patient. Totally harmless, right? Unfortunately not at all, as the later diagnosis shows.
Recorded by Constanze Löffler
The woman in her mid-fifties came to see me in the outpatient clinic for the first time. She had suffered from psoriasis for 20 years. The disease is characterized by sharply demarcated, raised reddened skin with scales. They can appear all over the body. Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease in which the immune system is overactive and increasingly releases certain messenger substances that trigger the inflammatory reactions. My patient had psoriasis mainly on her back, elbows and knees. She had previously been repeatedly treated with cortisone tablets and creams. The symptoms had improved under this, but had never completely gone away.