Systemic Mastocytosis | Appearance in Various Skin Tones and Genders
More Programs and Publications Featuring Dr. Brandy Gunsolus
In this program:
How does systemic mastocytosis manifest in different skin tones and genders? Medical laboratory scientist Dr. Brandy Gunsolus explains how the condition can vary by skin tone and gender and shares advice to help ensure patients receive an accurate diagnosis with the condition.
Transcript
Ariqa Everett:
Does systemic mastocytosis look different on different skin tones?
Dr. Brandy Gunsolus:
Yes, it does. If you are with an experienced clinician, and this would be a dermatologist, especially one that has some extensive training in mastocytosis, they should be able to diagnose it regardless of skin tone. The problem is going to be finding that experienced clinician.
Your family medicine, your internal medicine, your primary care providers, they have learned from the textbook. And unfortunately the textbook descriptions are all based on Caucasian skin. And they all say, it's a small yellow to tan, to reddish brown ill-defined spot. And the thing is that that's...it does not look the same on darker skin. And every textbook picture that I have seen has had someone, white, white, white, the darker the skin, even once you get to Hispanic or Middle Eastern, it looks different. And the darker you get from there, it looks even more different.
It's very difficult to see the yellow at all once you start getting darker skin. Now these are spots that are not raised, and over time the spots will turn brown. Again, if the spots are turning brown and they're on a brown skin, it's going to be very difficult for most people to discern. But if you get a clinician, a dermatologist that is experienced with mastocytosis, they should be able to tell the difference regardless of the skin type. They may still want to do a biopsy to verify, and that biopsy, then the pathologist will look at the cells underneath the microscope, and underneath the microscope there's no difference between skin color, those cells, they're the same. So you'll be able... pathologists can definitely tell between the different ones, but it does look different. If you have a primary care physician that has just brushed you off, you can ask for a dermatology referral.
Ariqa Everett:
So how does systemic mastocytosis manifest itself differently in males and females?
Dr. Brandy Gunsolus:
Well one, males are more likely to have it. It is much more common in males than females. Unfortunately, males research has shown they are much more likely to ignore the symptoms and not seek medical help. The symptoms are often brushed off. These are...while you may have the spots that come up and then you've got the bone pain, they'll take ibuprofen or Tylenol or something in an effort to alleviate it. The spots are not always itchy, and they may just brush it off as something else and not seek medical care. So that is a difference there.
Males need to understand that if their body is telling them something to not ignore it, they need to seek medical care, especially if you have multiple symptoms that are occurring and you're not getting sustained relief or they're not going away on their own. Men, you do need to seek medical care. Do not ignore these because you can't...this condition can end up with permanent organ damage and organ failure.
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