When to Worry It’s More than Atopic Dermatitis

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to review the diagnosis of atopic dermatitis along with various disease mimickers. Traditionally, atopic dermatitis is a clinical diagnosis with distinctive history, morphology, and distribution of pruritic eczematous lesions aiding in determining the condition and treatment. However, multiple other conditions may mimic atopic dermatitis, requiring further workup. We review diagnostic mimickers of atopic dermatitis and divide them into four major categories: immunodeficiencies, malignancies, nutritional deficiencies, and systemic disease. In addition, we organize a workup to be considered if there is a high suspicion for something other than atopic dermatitis. Although there are multiple other conditions that can mimic atopic dermatitis, there are gaps in not only considering them, but also in recognizing when to proceed with further workup and what to include.