title: Morphological Diversity of Pretibial Myxedema and Its Mechanism of Evolving Process and Outcome: A Retrospective Study of 216 Cases.
abstract: Background. Pretibial myxedema (PTM) is a rare dermopathy. The morphologic features and mechanism of its evolving process are not reported in large case series. Methods. 216 cases with PTM were retrospectively reviewed to analyze demographics, history, lesional morphology and its evolving process, histopathology and immunohistochemistry, serum TRAb levels, treatment, and outcome. Results. First appearing lesions evolved into 6 variants that were correlated with serum TRAb levels. Subvariants were caused by different kinds and frequencies of local trauma. The evolving process could be classified into 4 stages that were correlated with serum TRAb levels and perivascular infiltration of CD8+ and CD4+ lymphocytes. Serum TRAb levels at remission and in nonrecurred cases became lower than those before therapy and in recurred cases, respectively, but increased when PTM relapsed. TRAb level in nodule variant went down invariably with the extension of course and its autoimmune activity had a trend to stop but in other 5 variants TRAb levels fluctuated. Their autoimmune activities had no trends to stop and clinically worsen through intermittent repeats of active and stable stages. Conclusions. In the chronic course of PTM, nodule variant is self-limited and other 5 variants are not self-limited. PTM needed early treatment to avoid severe variants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) 416 Hospital, No. 4 Er Huan Lu Bei Si Duan, Chengdu, Sichuan 610051, China.
authors.forename: Changgui
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9471-2214
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) 416 Hospital, No. 4 Er Huan Lu Bei Si Duan, Chengdu, Sichuan 610051, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6969-5611
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) 416 Hospital, No. 4 Er Huan Lu Bei Si Duan, Chengdu, Sichuan 610051, China.
authors.forename: Xia
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5441-0556
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) 416 Hospital, No. 4 Er Huan Lu Bei Si Duan, Chengdu, Sichuan 610051, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4919-0530
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) 416 Hospital, No. 4 Er Huan Lu Bei Si Duan, Chengdu, Sichuan 610051, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoxi
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2760-4421
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zou