About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staff
Severity of symptoms may vary widely among family members who have the condition. Symptoms include:
- Dry, scaly skin
- Tile-like, small scales, in polygon shapes
- Scales colored white, dirty gray or brown — with people with darker skin tending to have darker colored scales
- Flaky scalp
- Deep, painful cracks in your palms and soles in severe cases
The scales usually appear on your elbows and lower legs and may be especially thick and dark over your shins. Most cases of ichthyosis vulgaris are mild, but some can be severe.
Symptoms usually worsen or are more pronounced in cold, dry environments and tend to improve or even resolve in warm, humid environments.
Ichthyosis vulgaris is the most common of the ichthyoses, a group of skin diseases characterized by scaliness. Other less common forms of ichthyosis include:
- Lamellar ichthyosis. This severe form is also known as congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma or nonbullous congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma. Present at birth, this form lasts throughout life. Infants with lamellar ichthyosis are born encased in a filmy (collodion) membrane that's shed after 10 to 14 days, revealing skin that's covered in scales. The scales can range from fine and white to thick and dark and generally occur over the entire body, although they may be larger on the legs. Lamellar ichthyosis can be extremely disfiguring and may cause great psychological suffering for children and adults with the disease.
- X-linked ichthyosis. Starting soon after birth, this type of ichthyosis occurs only in males. The noticeable, dirty-brown scales that characterize this skin disease are most pronounced on the back of the neck, on the arms and behind the knees. Symptoms generally don't improve with age.
- Epidermolytic hyperkeratosis. Also known as bullous congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma, this rare form of ichthyosis is usually present at birth and begins with blistering skin. In time, the skin peels away in large sheets and becomes rough or looks like it has warts. The affected skin is most pronounced on the knees, elbows, wrists and other flexural areas.
When to see a doctor
If you suspect you or your child has ichthyosis, talk to your family doctor or a dermatologist. He or she can diagnose the condition by examining the characteristic scales. Also, be sure to seek medical advice if the symptoms worsen or don't improve with self-care measures. You may need stronger medication to manage the condition.
- About ichthyosis: FAQ. Foundation for Ichthyosis & Related Skin Types. http://www.scalyskin.org/column.cfm?ColumnID=13. Accessed April 4, 2010.
- Okulicz JF, et al. Hereditary and acquired ichthyosis vulgaris. International Journal of Dermatology 2003;42:95.
- Fleckman P, et al. The ichthyoses. In: Wolff K, et al. Fitzpatrick's Dermatology in General Medicine. 7th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Medical; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2977821. Accessed April 5, 2010.
Find Mayo Clinic on