Pinpoint red dots on skin lupus plus#

So be careful when going to one of these places that uses a “black light” if you have vitiligo, because your spots will glow! Maybe you’ll think this is cool, and want to find one. It’s the same light used for highlighting fluorescent colors in the dark, like “midnight bowling”, “fluorescent mini golf”, and clubs in the 70s. The Wood’s lamp is a UVA light that looks dark purple, and it’s used by holding it close to the skin with all the lights in the room turned out. The details of these forms of vitiligo are for another blog post, but if you or your doctor knows these patterns it’s easier to determine if the spots are from vitiligo or a lookalike that causes the same pattern. Maybe most importantly, it can affect just one side of your body and stay in a small area, which is called segmental vitiligo. Universal vitiligo means that most of the skin has lost its pigment as vitiligo has spread all over, usually we reserve this term for when at least 80% is affected. It can affect the face and hands/feet, which is called acrofacial vitiligo.

Pinpoint red dots on skin lupus plus#

It can affect just the lips and genitals, called mucosal vitiligo, or those areas plus the fingertips, called lip-tip vitiligo. It can become widespread, often called generalized vitiligo. For example, vitiligo can affect a small area (usually early on before it spreads), called focal vitiligo. Vitiligo can sometimes have different appearances, so being familiar with the different patterns that can exist is helpful to recognize it and tell it apart from other conditions. So, if you’re wondering if you have vitiligo but aren’t sure, maybe this blog will help you figure that out, and clarify what’s distinct to vitiligo versus its lookalikes! There are different patterns of vitiligo Sometimes I’ve had vitiligo patients who notice new spots on their bodies that they think are vitiligo, but they’re something else, often things that are even easier to treat. But I’ve seen patients in my Vitiligo Clinic, some who’ve traveled a very long distance (even other countries), who didn’t actually have vitiligo, but had diseases that looked like vitiligo. It’s pretty distinctive and is frequently diagnosed by a dermatologist simply by looking at it, often with the aid of a special light called a Wood’s lamp. Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease of the skin that causes white spots.