Three case of xeroderma pigmentosum (Kaposi) or atrophoderma pigmentosum / by H. Radcliffe Crocker.

  • Henry Radcliffe Crocker
Date:
[1884]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Three case of xeroderma pigmentosum (Kaposi) or atrophoderma pigmentosum / by H. Radcliffe Crocker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    abnormal in tbe skin bad been observable, nor were there any general symptoms to attract attention either before or at the time the disease began. Simply, the common history is that, some morning, probably in spring or sum¬ mer, the face becomes covered with red spots something like those of measles, for which the disease has been mistaken, or the redness may be more diffused, form¬ ing patches. This erythematous eruption fades in a few days, but leaves behind pigmented freckle-like spots, or as in Duhring’s, my own, and some other cases, the lentigines have appeared without any preceding eruption. Follow¬ ing at varying intervals of months or years, or it may be simultaneously, the other parts of the body which are habitually uncovered, viz. the neck, face, backs of fore¬ arms, and lower parts of arms, and sometimes the legs are similarly affected. When once the disease has attained to the dimensions exemplified by the cases shown to-night it ceases to spread, the further development being in the direction of fresh lesions within the self- prescribed limits. The pigment spots enlarge, become of a deeper colour, and others form, even in such unusual positions as the nails and palms, as in my cases, and the palpebral mucous membrane and sclerotic in one of Vidal’s. As time goes on the pigment spots prove them¬ selves by no means the harmless freckles they at first appear, but play an important part in the evolution of what are afterwards to become fatal lesions. We do not know how soon the white atrophic spots and areas develope but they are later than the pigmentation. And whether they are consequent upon the telangiectases, as Taylor thinks, or whether the telangiectases are the consequence of the obliteration of the vessels in the atrophic areas, remains to be proved. The atrophy sometimes involves the mucous membranes. At varying intervals, but usually some years from the commencement of the disease, super¬ ficial ulcers develope, covered with yellowish brown, or black blood-crusts. Some of the ulcers heal while others spread and fungate. A little later when the finger is passed over
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