Glossary of terms: D

a condition of being distorted, disfigured, flawed, malformed, or misshapen, which may affect the body in general or any part of it.

is a person trained to treat, fill and extract teeth.

is  an inflammation of the skin which can be as a result of an infection or a substance that has come into contact with the skin. Classified as acute, sub-acute or chronic depending on the severity.

a physician specialising in disorders of the skin.

the study of the skin, including its anatomic, physiologic, and pathologic characteristics and the diagnosis and treatment of skin disorders.

is a simple ten point questionnaire, which is used for more than 30 different skin conditions. It is the most frequently used questionnaire in controlled trials in dermatology.

The ten questions include the following areas:

• Symptoms and feelings
• Daily activities
• Leisure
• Work and school
• Personal relationships
• Treatment

These are assigned a score and once added together give a total DLQI.

inflammation of the muscles normally accompanied by a rash over the eyelids, cheeks, chest and knuckles. Muscles become weak, stiff and painful and the skin over these muscles feels thicker than normal. There may also be bouts of nausea, weight loss and fever.

the deep layer of skin.

are rare but sight-threatening. They occur when the retina becomes separated from the underlying tissue.

is the best measurement of bone mineral density. Inflammatory spondylitis found in some patients with arthropathy may be accompanied by reduced bone density in the vertebrae particularly.

the loss, absence, or impairment of physical and or mental fitness.

is an unhealthy condition or illness.

if a patient has persistent inflammation in several joints for longer than six weeks then the doctor might prescribe a medication called a Disease Modifying anti-rheumatic Drug or DMARD (pronounced DeeMard). They are usually prescribed in addition to anti-inflammatory NSAIDs as the NSAID is designed to reduce the day-to-day inflammation and the DMARD slows down the biological processes that cause the persistent inflammation.

antibodies to DNA are the most specific and reliable test for the diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus and are rarely found in psoriatic arthropathy whereas the screening test for anti-nuclear antibody is occasionally found positive but usually has no significance.