Purpura fulminans secondary to respiratory infection.
Purpura fulminans features the sudden onset of large rapidly-spreading areas of hemorrhagic skin necrosis. This is followed by a disseminated intravascular coagulopathy with consecutive consumption of anticoagulant factors. Patients with severe disease in whom therapy is delayed often develop shock with a poor prognosis.The mortality rate is about 30-40%. An elderly women developed purpura fulminans after a respiratory infection. Prompt diagnosis before shock symptoms had started was instrumental in producing a favorable clinical course.
Department of Dermatology, Clinic Kassel, Mönchebergstrasse 41-43, Kassel, Germany. jakob@klinikum-kassel.de
Antje
A
Jakob
Elias
E
Alexandrakis
Rainer
R
Rompel
D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D055665:Purpura Fulminans / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis*