FLORENCE, ITALY — More than 60% of children and young adults with Down syndrome had notable skin and mucous membrane conditions in a study presented at the 13th Congress of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.
“With increasing survival of Down [syndrome] cases, physicians must be more aware of the skin findings seen so frequently in this genetic disorder,” said Maryam Daneshpazhooh, M.D., a dermatologist at Razi Hospital in Tehran, Iran.
The presence of furrows on the dorsal surface of the tongue, called fissured tongue or scrotal tongue, occurs in about 2%-5% of the general population.
Fissured tongue, the most common mucocutaneous finding in the Iranian study, was seen in 28 of 100 subjects aged 3-20 years who were attending schools for children with special needs in the Karaj and Shahryar provinces, she reported.
The frequency of the condition in subjects with Down syndrome increased with the age of the patient, Dr. Daneshpazhooh said.
Hypertrophy of the tongue papillae, seen in 22 of 100 children, was the second most common finding.
The next most common finding was premature graying, observed in 14 members of the cohort. More than half of the oldest subjects—those who were aged 16-20 years—had prematurely gray hair. (See box.)
In contrast to data discovered in previous studies, which were conducted on institutionalized children, none of the Iranian children had infections or parasitic infestations at the time of the study.
Dr. Daneshpazhooh noted that all of the children with Down syndrome in her study lived at home, where infestations are less common than in institutions. Families may pay more attention to hygiene in children with Down syndrome than would institutional staff.
Mucocutaneous Findings in Children And Young Adults