Necrolytic migratory erythema with elevated plasma enteroglucagon in celiac disease

Necrolytic migratory erythema is the distinctive skin rash of the glucagonoma syndrome. Its presence is virtually pathognomonic of a glucagon-producing pancreatic islet cell neoplasm. Results of a study of a patient with hyperglucagonemia and necrolytic migratory erythema complicating untreated celiac disease are reported. Whereas pancreatic glucagon was only mildly elevated, there was marked elevation of enteroglucagon. Immunofluorescence staining demonstrated numerous (19.6 cells per square millimeter of mucosa) enteroglucagon-positive small intestinal crypt cells. Treatment with gluten-free diet not only resulted in resolution of malabsorption and improvement in small intestinal histology but was paralleled by disappearance of necrolytic migratory erythema, normalization of plasma glucagon levels, and marked reduction in the number of enteroglucagon-producing crypt cells (0.2/mm2 mucosa). The findings demonstrate that necrolytic migratory erythema is not an exclusively paraneoplastic phenomenon and that it can occur in association with excess production of enteroglucagon by the intestinal mucosa.