Lupus pernio

Thirty-five patients with lupus pernio have been observed in a series of 818 patients with clinical and histological evidence of sarcoidosis. This analysis provides the natural history of lupus pernio and its associated clinical and radiological features. It predominates in women, and particularly in West Indians. The chronic persistent violaceous skin lesions have a predilection for the nose, cheeks, lips, eyelids, ears and fingers, ranging from a few nodules under the tip of the nose to exuberant plaques spreading across the nose and both cheeks. There was intrathoracic involvement in 74% of patients, upper respiratory tract disease in 54%, reticulo-endothelial involvement in 54%, bone cysts in 43% and ocular lesions in 37%. It is distinguished from lupus vulgaris and lupus erythematosus by clinical features, histology and radiology.