Harold is a 50-year-old, overweight, diabetic, hardworking father of three. He h

Question

Harold is a 50-year-old, overweight, diabetic, hardworking father of three. He has a 15-year smoking addiction. He isnt crazy about his job and has a habit of scratching his head while sitting at his desk. For the past several months he has noticed dandruff-like flakes falling onto his paperwork. He assumed this was due to dandruff and has been using a dandruff shampoo, with no improvement. Harold has also noticed that his fingernails are pitted and discolored. Today he is itching around his belt line. This is nearly as distracting as the itchy, scaly patches on his anterior knees and the posterior surfaces of his CO These round patches are raised, reddened, and scaly with silvery plaques. They are tender and have been enlarging and worsening for the past few weeks. Harold is so concerned about these skin lesions that he consults a dermatologist (skin doctor), who performs a skin biopsy. The dermatologist comments that, under the microscope, the tissue looks like epidermis in overdrive. It takes approximately 7-10 days for a cell to migrate from the stratum basale and become a dead keratinized cell of the stratum corneum. One of the more interesting treatments for psoriasis involves the use of the doctor fish" {Garra rufa). Psoriasis sufferers will submerge themselves in a tank filled with these tiny fish. The fish nibble away at the outermost layer of the epidermis, removing dead skin cells and the scaly psoriasis patches. Which layer of the epidermis is the "doctor fish" removing? stratum corneum the stratum granulose the hypodermis the stratum basale

Explanation / Answer

Stratum corneum

Doctor fish are used for the treatment of patients with psoriasis. Doctor fish are basically starving and seem to have an insatiable appetite for dead skin i.e., stratum corneum which is the outermost layer of the epidermis, consisting of dead cells

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