Vasculitis in cytomegalovirus infection

A 7-year-old girl had fever, arthralgia, and a mild cutaneous vaculitis with papules, nodules, and livedo. A biopsy specimen of a papule showed lymphocytic small-vessel vasculitis, with some atypical lymphocytic nuclei. Splenomegaly developed, and results of subsequent studies supported a diagnosis of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, with atypical peripheral blood lymphocytes and a characteristic pattern of complement-fixing antibodies to CMV antigen. The CMV mononucleosis syndrome is rarely reported in children, and the cutaneous manifestations are usually rubelliform. Distinctive cutaneous pathologic characteristics have been described previously only in neonates ("blueberry muffin" syndrome) and in immunosuppressed patients (viral inclusion bodies in endothelial cells).