title: Sweet's syndrome: a retrospective clinical, histopathological and immunohistochemical analysis of 11 cases.
abstract: The aim of this paper is to report our clinical experience of Sweet's syndrome, a severe dermatological disease which may be extremely important to recognize for the early diagnosis of a neoplastic disorder. Eleven patients affected by Sweet's syndrome, treated at the Department of Dermatology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy, during 1998 to 2004, were evaluated. A retrospective analysis was performed. Data on age, sex distribution, clinical data, histopathological and immunohistochemical findings and therapy were collected. We observed one patient with idiopathic form, 5 patients affected by the para-inflammatory variant and 5 para-neoplastic cases (with haemoproliferative diseases). The cases with the para-inflammatory form were affected by minor infectious manifestations. Prolonged follow-up is necessary to verify that a case of idiopathic variant is not really a paraneoplastic form. Based on immunohistochemical analysis, we cannot exclude that true histiocytes, immunoreactive for CD68/PGM, infiltrate the dermis in Sweet's syndrome lesions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Dermatology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy. czm@unife.it
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Corazza
authors.forename: Maria Michela
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Lauriola
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Borghi
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marzola
authors.forename: Annarosa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Virgili
mesh_terms: D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001706:Biopsy; D005260:Female; D006644:Histiocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D015477:Leukemia, Myelomonocytic, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000175:diagnosis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000378:metabolism; D010257:Paraneoplastic Syndromes / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012867:Skin / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D016463:Sweet Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones