Lupus erythematosus-associated primary and secondary anetoderma.

Background: Anetoderma (focal loss of dermal elastic tissue) can either be primary, which is an idiopathic occurrence of anetoderma in normal areas of the skin, or secondary, which is preceded by an inflammatory dermatosis in the same location.

Objective: Sporadic reports of lupus erythematosus-associated anetoderma have been described in the literature. All reported cases were positive for antiphospholipid antibodies. We present a patient with primary and secondary anetoderma with chronic lupus dermatitis and negative antiphospholipid antibodies.

Results: A middle-aged woman presented with a soft nodule with a wrinkled surface on her left arm and an erythematous atrophic plaque with a nodular surface on the chest. Skin biopsy from the left arm showed epidermal atrophy without inflammatory changes. Histologic findings of the lesion on the chest were consistent with chronic lupus dermatitis and secondary anetoderma. Laboratory investigations showed positive antinuclear antibody anti-double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) antibody but negative antiphospholipid antibodies.

Conclusions: Primary and secondary anetodermas may occur in patients of lupus dermatitis without positive antiphospholipid antibodies.