Article Text
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Linear red to purple marks (figure 1) were seen on the back of 16-year-old boy brought to the emergency department around midnight with chest pains and palpitations. According to the patient, these marks had been there for a few years and he denied any history of physical injury, but it raised suspicion of bruises (non-accidental injury) to emergency department staff. The patient was later reviewed by a paediatrician who diagnosed these as striae. He was a thin boy and had had quite rapid growth over the last few years.
These striae are also seen in non-obese individuals due to a sudden growth spurt and can cause panic to inexperienced personnel because of the possibility of non-accidental injury. Striae can be associated with obesity, Cushing syndrome, Marfan syndrome, other collagen disorders and with excessive marijuana use. Similar cases have been reported by paediatricians to social services1 for investigation of child abuse. School nurses have also reported cases to social services seen during screening programmes for scoliosis.1 Awareness that these lesions are not a manifestation of child abuse will avoid embarrassment and other problems to patients, doctors, nurses and families.
Acknowledgments
The author thanks the patient for permission to publish this case report.
Reference
Footnotes
Competing interests None.
Patient consent Obtained.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.