Cutaneous plasmacytosis

PubMed, the Internet portal of biomedical and life sciences literature, indexed an interesting article, entitled “Targeting T cells to hit B cells: successful treatment of cutaneous plasmacytosis with topical pimecrolimus.” (Dermatology. 2006;213(2):163-5). Authors are Hajner C, Hohenleutner U, Babilas P et al, from the Klinik und Poliklinik fur Dermatologie, Universitat Regensburg, Germany. Cutaneous plasmacytosis is a rare disease predominantly found in Japanese patients. The authors describe a case of a 75-year-old white female with cutaneous plasmacytosis of the face and involvement of the bone marrow. In contrast to other cases of cutaneous plasmacytosis, the patient revealed hypogammaglobulinemia and elevated levels of free light chains in the urine. Treatment with topical pimecrolimus 1%, which primarily targets T cells, led to almost complete clinical and histological remission of the skin lesions. To access the full abstract of the article, click here.