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[Acral erythema and HIV infection]
C Barzegar1, M L Dubreuil, J Revuz
1Service de Dermatologie, Hôpital Henri Mondor, Créteil.
Background:
Acral erythema is a non specific skin condition observed in connective tissue diseases, viral infections and toxic skin reactions. More recently, this symptom has been reported in HIV-infected patients.
Case Report:
We observed two cases of acral erythema in HIV seropositive patients. Both patients were drug abusers. Erythema was limited to the limbs with no clinical manifestation of connective tissue disease. Both consumed approximately 40 tablets of codeine daily and had hepatitis C without cirrhosis.
Discussion:
Our 2 cases of acral erythema in HIV-infected patients can be added to 32 cases of digital erythema in HIV patients reported in the literature. The common features in most of these patients was intravenous opiate abuse and hepatitis C without cirrhosis. The degree of immunodeficiency, the nature of opportunistic infections and antiretroviral treatments do not appear to affect the development of skin signs. HIV infection, simultaneous HIV-HCV infection and codeine suggest they might have a pathogenic role in the development of distal vascularization disorders.