Faculty Bibliography

Malignant melanoma is the most common malignancy during pregnancy, and is diagnosed during childbearing age in approximately one-third of women diagnosed with melanoma. The impact of hormonal changes during pregnancy and from iatrogenic hormones on melanoma is controversial. Women undergo immunologic changes during pregnancy that may decrease tumor surveillance. In addition, hormone receptors are found on some melanomas. In spite of these observations, the preponderance of evidence does not support a poorer prognosis for pregnancy-associated melanomas. There is also a lack of evidence that oral contraceptives or hormone replacement therapy worsens melanoma prognosis.

Papular acantholytic dyskeratosis (PAD) of the vulva is a rare, chronic disorder first described in 1984. It presents in young women as white to skin-coloured smooth papules over the vulva, which are persistent but asymptomatic. Histologically, there is hyperkeratosis and focal parakeratosis with acantholytic and dyskeratotic cells forming corps ronds and grains, placing PAD within Ackerman's spectrum of focal acantholytic dyskeratoses with Hailey-Hailey disease (HHD) and Darier disease. There have been 17 previous reports of PAD of the vulva, to our knowledge. Only one demonstrated a familial pattern, and none of the cases was associated with a family history of HHD. This is the first report of PAD and HHD in a single family, suggesting that PAD and HHD lie on a spectrum of disease and are genetically linked.

The most recent reclassification of dermatoses of pregnancy includes polymorphic eruption of pregnancy, atopic eruption of pregnancy, and pemphigoid gestationis; intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, strictly not a dermatosis, was included in specific dermatoses of pregnancy for working purposes. Another dermatosis, pustular psoriasis of pregnancy, could be included for similar reasons. The nomenclature of these pregnancy-specific eruptions has been revised several times, generating potential confusion among practitioners. Clouding the picture further are misnomers that have been used to describe dermatoses of pregnancy. In addition, several cutaneous conditions that are associated with, but not specific to, pregnancy, have been misunderstood, which has resulted in certain myths among patients and physicians. In this contribution, we describe how the nomenclature of each dermatosis of pregnancy has evolved to fit the current classification scheme. We then identify several misnomers that have generated confusion within the scheme. Finally, we debunk several myths that have developed around cutaneous conditions outside of this scheme, in both mother and newborn.

Cutis verticis gyrata that involves only the face is a rare presentation of this even rarer cutaneous anomaly. We present a 61-year-old man, who developed primary essential progressive cutis verticis gyrata of the face.

Lichen sclerosus (LS) is a chronic, inflammatory dermatosis that is characterized by pruritic, white, atrophic plaques that classically affect the anogenital region of postmenopausal women. Extragenital involvement also may occur with several reported morphologic variants. Extragenital bullous LS is a rare variant, which presents as flaccid bullae that favor the trunk and proximal aspects of the extremities. The treatment of extragenital bullous LS is similar to that of genital LS. However, extragenital LS is often less responsive and may present a therapeutic challenge. We describe a 65-year-old woman with a two-year history of vulvar and extragenital LS, who developed a bullous eruption within a pre-existing patch of lichen sclerosis on the breast. We review the clinical and histopathologic features of extragenital bullous LS and discuss current treatment options, which include those for recalcitrant cases.

Erythema annulare centrifugum (EAC) is a reactive erythema with distinct, annular, erythematous plaques with trailing scale. This condition has been associated with various etiologies, which include an associated malignant condition. EAC with cancers or paraneoplastic erythema annulare centrifugum eruptions (PEACE), is more likely to be associated with lymphoproliferative malignancies such as lymphomas and leukemias. Histopathologic features include a superficial and deep, lymphohistiocytic perivascular infiltrate. We present a patient with a history of diffuse large B cell lymphoma in remission for two years, who presented with a one-year history of EAC.

Annular elastolytic giant cell granuloma (AEGCG) is a controversial entity that is considered by many to be a variant of granuloma annulare (GA). The majority of cases of AEGCG occur in Caucasian women (3:2) between the ages of 40 and 70, with the distribution of the mostly annular lesions favoring exposed areas of skin and rarely involving covered skin. The most common systemic association has been with diabetes mellitus. We present a 52-year-old woman with an asymptomatic, annular, erythematous, photodistributed eruption of two-years duration. As part of her evaluation, it was detected that she had a hemoglobin A1C of 10.3% and a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus was made. We review the literature on the clinical and histopathologic features of GA and AEGCG and the overlap between these entities.

We report the first case of direct immunoflourescence-proven immunoglobulin A (IgA) vasculitis associated with influenza infection in an adult patient. IgA vasculitis, which was previously known as Henoch-Schonlein purpura, is the most common systemic vasculitis in children but rarely occurs in adults. Disease onset often occurs after upper respiratory tract infections that are caused by adenovirus or enterovirus. The American College of Rheumatology defines IgA vasculitis by the presence of any two of the following four criteria: age