title: Idiopathic atrophy of the nails: clinical and pathological study of 2 cases.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Whether idiopathic atrophy of the nails (IAN) should be considered a separate entity or a clinical variant of nail lichen planus is still controversial.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We report here the pathological study of 2 patients with IAN.
  
  
  METHODS
  Our patients had similar clinical features consisting of severe nail atrophy with and without pterygium.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The nail matrix architecture was markedly deformed with complete disappearance of the keratogenous zone that was replaced by a 3- to 10-cell-thick granular layer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The hypothesis that IAN is an acute and self-limited variety of lichen planus is still the most presumable. Even though this hypothesis can not be definitely proven, it is nevertheless not excluded by the clinical and pathological findings of our cases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, University of Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tosti
authors.forename: B M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Piraccini
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Fanti
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bardazzi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Landro
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001284:Atrophy; D002921:Cicatrix / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007633:Keratins; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009262:Nails / Q000473:pathology*; D009264:Nails, Malformed
chemical_list: D007633:Keratins