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. 2022 Sep 16;15(1):9561.
doi: 10.4081/dr.2022.9561. eCollection 2023 Mar 7.

Maculopapular sarcoidosis: the importance of skin signs

Giovanna Galdo  1 , Gelsomina Luongo  2 , Daniela Capacchione  3 , Damiano Abeni  4 , Marta Grimaldi  5 , Luca Fania  4
Affiliations

Maculopapular sarcoidosis: the importance of skin signs

Giovanna Galdo et al. Dermatol Reports. .

Abstract

Sarcoidosis is a multisystem disease that affects the skin in 20 to 30% of cases. Skin findings are often the initial presenting signs, and cutaneous sarcoidosis may appear with a wide variety of lesions; it is often considered an imitator of many other skin diseases. Clinical appearance and specific dermoscopic criteria, confirmed by a typical pathology, may guide to the correct diagnosis. We report the case of a man affected by maculo-papular sarcoidosis on the back, in which the detection of cutaneous lesions was the initial step to determine the systemic nature of the disease.

Keywords: Sarcoidosis; maculopapular lesions; skin signs.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: The authors declare no potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
A) Circled skin lesions: erythematous-brownish maculo-papular lesions on the left scapular region; B) Circled skin lesions: erythematous-brownish maculo-papular lesion on the right scapular region; C) DermLite, 3Gen, ×20: dermoscopic findings of the maculo-papular lesion with irregular vessels around a whitish-yellow structureless areas on yellow-orange background.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
A) Hematoxylin and eosin, optical microscope×10: histological examination - non caseating epithelioid granulomas (naked granuloma) in the superficial dermis and thin epidermal layer without dermal papillae and rete ridges; B) Positron emission tomography - PET: increased standard uptake value (standard uptake value max 4.16) at the apical segment of the pulmonary right upper lobe and in Barety space lymph nodes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Funding: None.