Diffuse dermal angiomatosis of the breast: clinical and histopathological features

Diffuse dermal angiomatosis is an entity in the spectrum of reactive angiomatoses characterized by erythematous plaques that mainly affect the lower extremities of patients with a personal history of peripheral vascular disease. Involvement of the breast is a rare event that has only been described as single cases in women with large breasts.

Our main aim is to report three rare cases of diffuse dermal angiomatosis of the breast and to better define their clinical, histopathological, and immunohistochemical characteristics. Comorbidities and management will also be discussed.

A retrospective search of patients with the diagnosis of diffuse dermal angiomatosis of the breast was made. Databases of three hospitals, Hospital 12 de Octubre (Madrid, Spain), Hospital La Fe (Valencia, Spain), and Clinica Dermatologica, University of Genoa (Italy), were included in the analysis.

Three middle-aged women who were heavy smokers were found. Physical examination revealed several livedoid plaques on both breasts. Painful ulceration over the violaceous lesions was observed in two cases. Histological features included a diffuse proliferation of spindle-shaped endothelial cells with focal small vessel formation occupying the full thickness of the dermis with scanty extravasated erythrocytes, showing positivity for CD31, CD34, and SMA-α and negativity for D2-40. Management was focused on a strict control of comorbidities, especially on the cessation of smoking habit that led to a conspicuous improvement in all patients.

We describe all those clinicopathologic features that define diffuse dermal angiomatosis of the breast, which should be considered a distinctive variant into the group of cutaneous angiomatoses. In our experience, a strict control of smoking habit must be the first step in the management of this entity.