Investigation of new co-factors in 49 patients with pyoderma gangrenosum

Pyoderma gangrenosum is a rare, destructive, ulcerative neutrophilic dermatosis of unknown origin that has been investigated insufficiently in clinical studies. According to current textbooks, it is often associated with chronic inflammatory bowel diseases or other autoimmune disorders.

We retrospectively analyzed data from 49 patients with pyoderma gangrenosum.

Our results showed that although only 6.1 % of patients had chronic inflammatory bowel disease, 22.4 % patients had a malignancy, 18.4 % had chronic renal insufficiency, and 42.8 % had anemia. A potentially relevant aspect that has received little attention is an association with endocrine diseases in 38.8 % of patients. 28.6 % of patients had diabetes. Given that 32.6 % of patients were obese, a potential association with metabolic syndrome may be considered as a possible new risk factor for pyoderma gangrenosum.

The clinical data from the present study are insufficient for drawing any firm conclusions. We did, however, observe an association between pyoderma gangrenosum and certain as yet unreported co-factors, in particular metabolic syndrome. This should be considered in further studies.