Department of Rheumatology, Musgrave Park Hospital, Belfast, UK
Correspondence to: D. J. Armstrong. E-mail: oswald17727{at}hotmail.com
SIR, I recently reviewed a patient with SLE at out-patients. Over many years she had described a recurring but always transient rash, which sometimes lasted for just a few hours but which had never been seen or properly documented by a physician.
On this occasion she brought with her a mobile phone, one of the newer models with an inbuilt digital camera. Stored on the database were several images of her rash, which had appeared on a shopping trip and lasted for about 3 h before vanishing. It appeared as a typical urticarial rash, as she had described, and not a photosensitive manifestation, as had sometimes been suspected on account of its distribution.
I believe this is the first report of a mobile telephone being used as diagnostic imaging technique in rheumatology.
The author has declared no conflict of interest.
Accepted 8 May 2004
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