[Hypopigmented mycosis fungoides].

Introduction: Hypopigmented mycosis fungoides is a rare clinical form of the disease, first described in 1978. Since then, only a hundred odd cases have been documented.

Case Report: A young 19 year-old African woman had presented with hypochromatic macules since the age of 9 and for which the diagnostic enquiry had finally concluded in hypopigmented mycosis fungoides.

[Study of the clonality of cutaneous and blood lymphocytes during drug-induced hypersensitivity in 6 patients].

Introduction: The drug-induced hypersensitivity syndrome or DRESS (drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms) is a severe toxiderma because it is accompanied by lethal visceral involvement in 6 to 10% cases. Its physiopathology remains unclear. In order to specify the immunological characteristics of this toxiderma we analyzed, prospectively, the rearrangement of the blood and cutaneous T-cell lymphocyte receptor (TCR) genes of patients exhibiting a drug-induced hypersensitivity syndrome between April 1998 and April 2000.

Clinical criteria for the diagnosis of bullous pemphigoid: a reevaluation according to immunoblot analysis of patient sera.

Background: We previously proposed a set of 4 clinical criteria for the diagnosis of bullous pemphigoid (BP) that consisted of age greater than 70 years, absence of atrophic scars, absence of mucosal involvement and absence of predominant bullous lesions on the neck and head. These results have been challenged because direct immunoelectron microscopy (IEM), which was used as the standard diagnostic criterion in our initial study, does not identify the different antigens of the basement membrane zone.

Objective: To reassess the validity of these clinical criteria for the diagnosis of BP using immunoblot analysis of patient sera as the main diagnostic criterion, in order to precisely identify the antigens recognized by patient sera.

[Bullous pemphigoid induced by spironolactone].

Introduction: The role of spironolactone as pemphigoid-inducing agent has recently been suggested. We report a new case of pemphigoid probably induced by spironolactone. The disease resolved after withdrawal of the diuretic drug containing aldactone.