Original articleActivity assessment in morphea using color Doppler ultrasound
Section snippets
Methods
The study included all patients with primary cutaneous morphea (not associated with collagen vascular diseases) referred by dermatologists for a color Doppler ultrasound examination between March 2001 and December 2009. The diagnosis had been confirmed in every case by subsequent histologic examination of a skin biopsy specimen (not available at the time of the imaging study). To ensure that the tests reflected similar lesion activity, cases were included only when histology specimens had been
Results
Of 10,604 dermatologist-referred patients, 51 with morphea lesions met the requisites for inclusion in the study (37 female and 14 male; mean age 28 years; range 4-68 years). Twelve of the patients with morphea (24% of the total) were in the pediatric group (<15 years old). A single lesion was present in 36 patients and 15 had multiple lesions, with a cumulative total of 104 morphea lesions analyzed. Diagnostic concordance between sonographic and histologic diagnosis was found in all but one
Discussion
This work, which comprises one of the largest series of histologically confirmed morphea lesions, demonstrates the usefulness of sonographic monitoring for the assessment of disease activity. Importantly, we found activity to be a pleomorphic variable because it could selectively involve only one of multiple lesions, or even focal areas in a single lesion. Also remarkable is the previously unreported involvement of the parotid gland of patients with PRS, on the same side of the facial
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Conflicts of interest: None declared.
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