Dermatitis Herpetiformis

Abstract

A 50-year-old black man with welldocumented systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) developed a skin eruption characterized by very pruritic grouped vesicles. Histologic examination of a biopsy specimen showed dermal papillitis with many neutrophils and dermal-epidermal separation. The clinical and histopathologic features of this eruption were typical of dermatitis herpetiformis. To our knowledge, the concurrence of SLE and dermatitis herpetiformis appears not to have been previously reported; and because both diseases are associated with special immune complexes, this association may not be entirely fortuitous.