Morphea and systemic sclerosis are fibrosing disorders of the skin that share common inflammatory and immunologic pathways that are responsible for the vascular changes, increased collagen production, and extracellular matrix proliferation seen in both conditions. Recent advances in molecular biology techniques have furthered our knowledge of the potential underlying pathogenic mechanisms and o...

Sir, A 21-year-old male presented with multiple brown asymptomatic plaques arranged in a zosteriform pattern, confined to the left flank of abdomen (Fig. 1) of 6 months’ duration. There was no history of herpes zoster affecting the same location. His general physical and systemic examinations were within normal limits. Cutaneous examination revealed a 3–6 cm wide zosteriform band composed of br...

Annular lichenoid dermatitis of youth (ALDY) is a more recently described inflammatory disease of the skin of unknown etiology with clinical similarities to morphea. The authors clinically, histopathologically, and immunohistochemically investigated 14 biopsies from 12 patients in western Austria with this disease. There were 6 female and 6 male patients with solitary (n = 7) and multiple lesio...

INTRODUCTION Morphea or localized scleroderma is a relatively rare disease whose main symptom is excessive skin fibrosis. Here we focus on the involvement of human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) in morphea. The HERVs are a vast and intensely growing field in genomics. HERVs are of special interest as far as autoimmune disorders are concerned, yet little effort has been made until now to assess...

Pansclerotic morphea (PSM) is a rare skin disease characterized by progressive stiffening of the with or without typical superficial changes usually seen in (localized scleroderma). Standard therapy, consisting combination systemic glucocorticoids and methotrexate mycophenolate mofetil, does rarely stop progression, which may lead to severe cutaneous sclerosis secondary contractures. Little kno...

Results Data were available on 44 children. 81.8% were female and 88.6% were Caucasian, of which 13.6% were Latino. Mean age at onset was 8.2 years (± 4.0), yet first evaluation by a pediatric rheumatologist was 9.9 years (± 4.2). Reported subtypes were: 34 linear scleroderma (LiScl: 25 trunk/limbs, 9 face/neck), 7 with circumscribed morphea (CM: 5 deep, 2 superficial), 6 with generalized morph...