Treatment of eosinophilic annular erythema with chloroquine.

Sir, Figurate or gyrate erythemas include a variety of dermatoses characterized clinically by annular and polycyclic erythemas or plaques with a tendency to centrifugal extension and central healing. In most cases the aetiology remains unknown and elimination of the cause is then not possible. In some cases spontaneous remission of the different types of gyrate erythemas has been observed (1). Several drugs have been used previously for the treatment of gyrate erythemas, in particular systemic steroids (2). In most cases, there is a poor response or lesions recur after discontinuation of treatment. Recently, chloroquine has been used as an alternative drug in the treatment of ®gurate erythemas. Frank et al. (3) observed a patient with erythema annulare centrifugum who showed a good response to chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine with disappearance of skin lesions and no recurrence. Figurate erythemas with conspicuous tissue eosinophilia have only been reported in children (1, 4). We observed a patient with recurrent annular erythemas, histologically presenting as eosinophilic dermatosis of 9 years' duration; an entity that has to our knowledge not yet been reported in adults. This dermatosis responded only temporarily to corticosteroids, but resolved promptly after treatment with chloroquine.