Drugs and Bugs

Overview:

Reactive infectious mucocutaneous eruption (RIME) is a reaction of the skin and mucosa (moist linings of the body) to infections. The infections are usually in the body’s airways, and they trigger skin reactions that look like blisters or a burn.

RIME is a problem for kids because it happens more to kids than adults. We don’t know why it happens, or why some kids get RIME and others don’t. Most doctors don’t know what to do to help when a kid with RIME comes to their clinic or hospital. Right now, we don’t have instructions on RIME for doctors.

Our group of dermatologists (skin doctors) is interested in RIME. We want to make clear instructions for other doctors, so they know how to tell that a kid has RIME and how to make them better. To do this, we will review what is written about RIME in medical journals and books. Our group has experience looking after kids with RIME, so when there is not a clear answer from journals and books, we will use our experience to suggest what to do.

Status:

This was funded through a 2022 PeDRA Consensus Guidelines Grant.

Overview

What to do about RIME (reactive infectious mucocutaneous eruption)?

Most kids get infections like colds or flus and just get sick but some of them get a burn-like reaction on their skin and mucous membranes (the wet parts of the body inside the mouth, eyes, nose, genital, and anal areas) that is called reactive infectious mucocutaneous eruption (RIME).

Researchers are starting to understand more about RIME. While waiting for them to figure out why RIME happens, we need a plan to treat RIME now. One way to do so is to put together what is already known and to ask experts who are looking after kids with RIME to share their experience. The experts talk amongst themselves about the plan until they agree. This is called a consensus.

The consensus will help kids who get RIME to have the same treatment from their doctors.

Status

This project was funded through a 2022 PeDRA Research Fellowship Grant.

Overview:

Reactive infectious mucocutaneous eruption (RIME) is a condition activated by an infection, resulting in blisters on the skin and widespread sores on mucous membranes. RIME is rare but most commonly affects children and adolescents. Recurrent RIME, where people have multiple episodes of RIME, is even more rare.

Recent research studies have shown that genetic differences can affect how children respond to common viral infections. We hypothesize that people who have RIME have genetic differences that cause an abnormal hyper-inflammatory response to common infections, and that people with recurrent RIME have even stronger genetic susceptibility.

The medical community does not know much about RIME or how to treat it. We would like to characterize RIME and recurrent RIME, describing the clinical features, the immunologic profile, and discovering genetic variants. We hope that if we can understand what makes children have RIME, we will be able to treat the disease more effectively.

Status:

This project was funded by a 2020 PeDRA Research Grant.