Matchbox sign: Look before you label!
Letter to the Editor / bservation Letter / Case study:
In a typical clinical vignette, patients of delusion of parasitosis or delusional infestation present with "evidence of parasites" collected in a container. This "matchbox sign" or "specimen sign" is useful to make the diagnosis, with a proviso that the material presented to the physician has been carefully examined and found to be normal skin pieces or extraneous material. [1]
A 26-year-old, unmarried female presented with a 20 days history of pruritus over legs, arms, and abdomen and a feeling of insects crawling all over her body. Except for a few excoriation marks, she had no other signs on the skin. [..]
The patient had a pet cat which ran away about a month back for 5 days and she correlated her symptoms to the cat's return. She was treated with antihistamines and calamine and advised to take her cat to a veterinary physician and contact a pest control agency for flea control at home. After 1 week, her symptoms had subsided completely.