Title: Chloasma

Identifier: LL02.49.00.07   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/21112)

Description: Dermatologic stereoview card. Front of card depicts a woman with gray hair in a black high collar dress with Chloasma on her face. The reverse of the card describes the dermatologic conditions as well as the diagnosis and treatment. Chloasma is a localized increase of the normal skin pigmentation. The condition is nearly always either a symptom of some organic or systemic disease, or else due to the action of certain external irritants. Among the latter the most common are sunlight (chloasma caloricum), plasters of mustard or cantharides (chloasma toxicum), or friction and pressure of clothing, trusses, etc., or the scratching induced by pruritic skin diseases, especially by skin parasites (chloasma traumaticum). Symptomatic chloasma occurs with many conditions, among which may be mentioned Addison’s disease; exophthalmic goiter; chronic pulmonary tuberculosis; abdominal growths, tuberculous, cancerous or lymphomatous; hemochromatosis; arterio-sclerosis; heart disease, and chlorosis; and it may follow the prolonged ingestion of arsenic. But the most common form is that associated with pregnancy and utero-ovarian disorders (chloasma uterinum); this occurs usually between the ages of twenty-five and fifty years, and is rarely seen after the climacteric. Treatment includes local application of pure carbolic acid or peroxide of hydrogen brushed over a patch. Chlosama may also be known as Liver spot, Moth patch, and Mask.