Minerva

Minerva

BMJ 2003; 326 doi: 10.1136/bmj.326.7404.1466 (Published 25 June 2003)
Cite this as: BMJ 2003;326:1466

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It's hard getting people to take regular exercise, but here's one group of patients who seemed really to benefit. Twenty patients with stable—but quite severe—chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were put through their paces with an exercise training programme. Their aerobic capacity improved and they became more tolerant to stimuli that had usually caused them to become breathless. Both factors led to considerable relief of exertional dyspnoea and leg effort after exercising (Chest 2003;123: 1794-802).

A 41 year old man with multiple tattoos on his arm presented to the dermatology department with an itchy eczematous rash in all the red areas of the tattoos. He had had tattoos for 15 years but had had some of the red areas refilled a year earlier. The rash appeared after the refilling, and it affected red areas that had not been touched up with red dye. This second exposure to red dye triggered an allergic contact dermatitis. Allergy to tattoo pigment is rare, but reaction to cinnabar (mercuric sulphide), the red pigment, is the most common.

Sarita Jain, staff grade, Catherine Stephens, consultant, department of dermatology, Poole Hospital NHS Trust, …

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