Lupus vulgaris

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Lupus vulgaris are painful cutaneous tuberculosis skin lesions with nodular appearance, most often on the face around nose, eyelids, lips, cheeks and ears.^[1]:335 The lesions may ultimately develop into disfiguring skin ulcers if left untreated. In the 19th century, the chronic and progressive nature of this disease was particularly marked: it remained active for ten years, twenty years, or even longer and, proved resistant to all treatment until the breakthrough by Niels Ryberg Finsen using a form of "concentrated light radiation" now known as Photobiomodulation which won him a Nobel Prize. Queen Alexandra of Great Britain, (1844–1925), consort to Edward the VII, as the inscription on the bronze statue of her at the London Hospital, notes, "Introduced to England the Finsen light cure for Lupus, and presented the first lamp to this hospital".

The term "lupus" to describe an ulcerative skin disease dates to the late thirteenth century, though it was not until the mid-nineteenth that two specific skin diseases were classified as Lupus erythematosus and Lupus vulgaris. The term "lupus" may derive from the rapacity and virulence of the disease; a 1590 work described it as "a malignant ulcer quickly consuming the neather parts; ... very hungry like unto a woolfe".^[2]

See also

• Miliary tuberculosis
• Metastatic tuberculous abscess or ulceration

Notes

1. ^ James, William D.; Berger, Timothy G.; et al. (2006). Andrews' Diseases of the Skin: clinical Dermatology. Saunders Elsevier. ISBN 0-7216-2921-0. 
2. ^ "Lupus", Oxford English Dictionary, online second edition. Accessed 2006

External links

• Image at University of Iowa (graphic)