Photoletter to the editor: Linear atrophoderma of Moulin progressing slowly over 46 years

Linear atrophoderma of Moulin is a rare acquired disorder arising most commonly during childhood or adolescence, occurring equally in both sexes and characterized by hyperpigmented atrophoderma in a unilateral bandlike distribution along the lines of Blaschko. Since Moulin et al described the condition in 1992, only a few dozen cases have been reported. It has been postulated that linear atrophoderma of Moulin may be due to mosaicism.A 66-year-old man pre-sen-ted with a 46-year his-to-ry of evol-ving tan soft atro-phic con-fluent plaques in a striking-ly Blasch-koid dis-tri-bu-tion, in-vol-ving the left up-per back, shoulder, up-per arm, chest and flank. Ini-tial on-set, at age 20, con-sis-ted of a single mildly pru-ritic pink patch on the left back that was un-res-pon-sive to topical anti-fun-gals. Each new le-sion arose simi-larly as a pink pru-ritic patch, sub-se-quent-ly be-co-ming de-pressed, hy-per-pig-men-ted, and asym-pto-ma-tic over se-ve-ral years. Le-sions were never scaly, firm, or indu-rated. Punch biopsy speci-mens were obtained. The clinical and histo-patho-lo-gi-cal features con-firmed the diagnosis of linear atrophoderma of moulin.Our present case has the characteristic clinical and histopathological features of linear atrophoderma of Moulin, but is the first reported case with mild pruritus at the onset of each new lesion and progressing slowly over 46 years. The lack of any systemic symptoms or other complications in our patient reaffirms the benign nature of this skin disease.