Abstract:

A 38-year-old woman presented with a 20-year history of yellow papules and band-like atrophy on the right neck. The lesions developed slowly and were asymptomatic. There was no history of long-term sun exposure or family history of similar diseases. Skin examination revealed multiple irregularly sized yellow papules and plaques on the right anterior neck following cleavage lines, multiple pin cap-sized perifollicular papules on the posterior right neck. Well-defined band-like atrophic patches with fine wrinkling were observed in the whole right neck, giving an aged appearance. The skin of the left neck was nearly normal. Pathological examination of biopsy specimens from the yellow papules showed a normal epidermis, scant lymphohistiocytic and melanophage infiltrates around the vessels in the superficial dermis without solar degradation. The collagen bundles in the mid dermis were slightly thickened and arranged tightly in parallel to the skin surface with the absence of inflammatory infiltrate. Verhoeff-van Giesen's staining confirmed a nearly complete absence of elastic fibers in the mid dermis as well as obvious swelling and breakage of resident scant elastic fibers. Von Kossa's staining was negative. Based on the above findings, the diagnosis was made as unilateral mid-dermal elastolysis.

Key words: Mid-dermal elastolysis