title: First report of tertiary syphilis presenting as lipoatrophic panniculitis in an immunocompetent patient.
abstract: We describe herein a woman who developed subcutaneous gummas in her trochanteric regions, bilaterally, although she had been treated for syphilis two decades earlier. Evidence of Treponema pallidum latent late infection was the presence of IgG antibodies against T. pallidum and the positive non-treponemal and treponemal tests. Moreover, immunohistochemical staining for T. pallidum detected some spirochetes close to the atrophic adipocytes allowing the diagnosis of lypo-atrophic panniculitis tertiary syphilis. This is the first case of tertiary syphilis presenting as panniculitis in an immunocompetent patient, demonstrating that subcutaneous fat may be another organ infected in tertiary syphilis.
authors: 1 DISSAL, Section of Dermatology, IRCCS Azienda, Universitaria Ospedaliera San Martino-IST, Genoa, Italy.
authors: Francesco
authors: F
authors: Drago
authors: 1 DISSAL, Section of Dermatology, IRCCS Azienda, Universitaria Ospedaliera San Martino-IST, Genoa, Italy.
authors: Giulia
authors: G
authors: Ciccarese
authors: 2 City of Health and Science of Turin, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
authors: Carlo F
authors: CF
authors: Tomasini
authors: 3 Department of Surgical and Diagnostic Sciences, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.|4 Department of Anatomical Pathology, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
authors: Paola
authors: P
authors: Calamaro
authors: 3 Department of Surgical and Diagnostic Sciences, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.|4 Department of Anatomical Pathology, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
authors: Maurizio
authors: M
authors: Boggio
authors: 1 DISSAL, Section of Dermatology, IRCCS Azienda, Universitaria Ospedaliera San Martino-IST, Genoa, Italy.
authors: Alfredo
authors: A
authors: Rebora
authors: 1 DISSAL, Section of Dermatology, IRCCS Azienda, Universitaria Ospedaliera San Martino-IST, Genoa, Italy.
authors: Aurora
authors: A
authors: Parodi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015434:Panniculitis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D011247:Pregnancy; D013587:Syphilis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D013588:Syphilis Serodiagnosis; D014210:Treponema pallidum / Q000276:immunology*
keywords: Tertiary syphilis; gumma; panniculitis