Infantile eczema or atopic dermatitis may produce a rash on the limbs, the trunk, the nappy area and even the face.

It may be dry and red or weeping and crusting.

This skin condition is one of the atopic diseases which have a strong family history, and include asthma, hayfever, sometimes migraine and, of course, eczema.

In some families there may be little evidence of the disorder but in others most or all of the members suffer from one or more of these disorders.

The role of allergy in atopic dermatitis in infants is difficult to evaluate. Some may be allergic to cow’s milk, or to other foods, but this is unusual.

What is definite is that breast-feeding tends to delay the development of eczema, and the outbreak is usually not as severe.

Rubbing and scratching may break the skin and lead to secondary infection. Repeated scratching in children and also in adults may lead the skin to become thick and dry and this increases the itch, so a vicious cycle becomes established.

Due to a disturbance in the immune system of the body associated with this disorder, general infection and infection of the skin is common.

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So, for example, what do we see on a chest X-ray? The air in i he lungs and around the body looks black, because all the X-rays get through the air. The heart and big blood vessels look greyish-white (a few X-rays get through). The bones of the ribs and spine look very white (hardly any of the X-rays get through). A solid irea in the lung is easy to see. It looks white against the black of the air in the normal lung around it. Weaknesses in bones are also fairly easy to see— more X-rays get through the softer bone. The weakened part shows as a grey area in the normal white bone. Because very few X-rays get through bones and some of the lurger organs, it is often necessary to take X-rays from more than one angle to get a complete picture. For example, if we want to Bee’ the part of the lungs that lies behind the heart we need to lake an extra X-ray from the side of the body as well as the front-to-back one.

Unfortunately, in many parts of the body it is very hard to see an abnormality on a simple X-ray. This is the case when the abnormality lets through as many X-rays as the normal part, because it is the same density. For example, cancer spots in the I idney are not much harder or softer than the normal kidney. On in X-ray they come out white and so does the normal kidney.

This means you can’t see them. The same applies to the brain, liver, stomach, bowel, pancreas and many other organs. What can we do to overcome this problem?

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