Sweet's syndrome with subcutaneous involvement associated with pegfilgrastim treatment: first reported case.

Neutrophilic panniculitis is an infrequent entity, considered by most authors as part of the 'neutrophilic dermatosis' spectrum. Few cases have been reported to be related with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF); we report a case of neutrophilic panniculitis and Sweet's syndrome lesions related with pegfilgrastim, a long-acting G-CSF. A 77-year-old woman with M2 acute myeloid leukemia was treated with chemotherapy as well as broad-spectrum antibiotics and antifungal drugs because of febrile neutropenia. Ten days after a single dose of pegfilgrastim, she developed a limited number of purple plaques on the neck, left leg, both arms and several indurated and slightly mobile nodules on her forearms. Skin biopsy of a plaque showed a diffused dermal neutrophilic infiltrate with dermal edema. Biopsy of a nodule showed a lobular neutrophilic panniculitis without vasculitis. No foreign material was found in those biopsies. No organisms were detected in blood, urine or tissue cultures. She was started with prednisolone 40 mg once a day, with dramatic improvement within the next 2 days. This case is noteworthy for the simultaneous appearance of Sweet's syndrome and neutrophilic panniculitis and it is the first case of neutrophilic panniculitis associated with this drug, pegfilgrastim.

Phototolerance induced by narrow-band UVB phototherapy in severe erythropoietic protoporphyria.

Erythropoietic protoporphyria arises from an inherited disorder of porphyrin metabolism which leads to an accumulation of protoporphyrin IX in the erythropoietic system and other tissues. It is characterized by cutaneous photosensitivity, usually difficult to keep under control. Among the scant therapeutic options proposed to reduce photosensitivity in erythropoietic protoporphyria, narrow-band UVB phototherapy has occasionally been used to induce sunlight tolerance. We report an adult case of erythropoietic protoporphyria with a severe photosensitivity treated with narrow-band UVB that developed an appropriate sunlight phototolerance, without adverse events during phototherapy.

Solar urticaria unresponsive to intravenous immunoglobulins.

The treatment of solar urticaria (SU) can be difficult. Only a few cases of SU have been treated with intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIg) (as monotherapy or combined with phototherapy), with reported fast and durable increase of solar exposure tolerance. A 61-year-old female with severe UVB- and UVA-induced SU and a 62-year-old female with severe UVA and visible light-induced SU were both treated with a single course of IVIg (total dose of 2 g/kg), infused over 3 days. Phototest, performed 3 months after the treatment, showed only a slight minimal urticating dose improvement, and both patients reported just a moderate and 'transient' subjective improvement. Our patient's poorer response, compared with previous reports, may be due to differences in IVIg's treatment schedules, which are reviewed.