Demographical, laboratory and associated findings in patients with perniosis.

BACKGROUND: Perniosis is a cold-induced inflammatory disorder of the acral areas. The objective of this study was to investigate the demographic characteristics, associated factors, clinical and laboratory findings in patients with perniosis and to compare those findings between patients who had recurrent and acute disease.

METHODS: Thirty-four patients with perniosis were investigated retrospectively for age, gender, occupation, smoking and diet histories, associated diseases, family history of perniosis, precipitating factors, the month of onset and the duration of perniosis, the distribution of the lesions and the results of laboratory investigations.

RESULTS: Fifteen patients were male and 19 were female. The ages of the patients ranged from 15 to 57 years. Thirteen patients were working as sales people, which was the most common occupation. Sixteen patients were smokers. While 25 of the patients had encountered perniosis for the first time, in 9 of the patients, there were recurrent lesions. Diseases other than perniosis were recorded in 6 of the patients. The laboratory tests revealed mild leukopenia in 2, antinuclear antibody (ANA) positivity in 3, mild rise in albumin level in serum protein electrophoresis in 1 patient. ANA positivity was significantly higher in patients with recurrent disease.

CONCLUSION: Perniosis was more common in women and below 40 years. We found no significant laboratory findings except ANA positivity in patients with recurrent perniosis.