Cutaneous mastocytosis in children: a clinical analysis of 71 cases

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the clinical features, response to therapy, evolution and prognosis of cutaneous mastocytosis in children. BACKGROUND: Mastocytosis in children, instead of being induced by a potentially oncogenic c-kit mutation, is probably a clonal disease with benign prognosis. METHODS: The clinicopathological features, evolution and response to treatment were analysed in 71 children with mastocytosis. RESULTS: There were 53 (75%) cases of urticaria pigmentosa, 12 (17%) cases of mastocytoma, and six (8%) cases of diffuse cutaneous mastocytosis. In 92% of cases disease onset was in the first year of life. There was a male predominance 1.8 : 1. Treatment did not modify the disease evolution. Eighty per cent of patients improved or had spontaneous resolution of the disease. CONCLUSION: The most frequent clinical form of mastocytosis was urticaria pigmentosa followed by mastocytoma and diffuse cutaneous mastocytosis. Darier's sign was present in 94% of cases. A negative Darier's sign does not rule out mastocytosis. In contrast to adults, mastocytosis in children usually has a benign course making sophisticated or invasive diagnostic tests unnecessary. A classification of paediatric cutaneous mastocytosis is proposed.     

Neutrophil Fc gamma RIIIb deficiency, nature, and clinical consequences: a study of 21 individuals from 14 families

Several individuals have been described whose neutrophils lack the normally abundantly expressed IgG Fc gamma receptor IIIb (Fc gamma RIIIb). We now studied the responsible genomic defect and analyzed the medical history in detail of 21 Fc gamma RIIIb-negative donors identified in 14 unrelated families. We developed a polymerase chain reaction allele-specific-primer annealing assay to genotype for the NA polymorphism of the Fc gamma RIIIB gene. All Fc gamma RIIIb-deficient individuals were negative for both the NA1 and the NA2 allele. In all cases the complete absence of the Fc gamma RIIIB alleles was confirmed using a Southern blot-based restriction fragment length polymorphism assay. Furthermore, an additional deletion of the next more telomeric located Fc gamma RIIC gene was found. Family studies showed that at least one Fc gamma RIIIB allele was absent in both parents in 6 families, whereas in 2 families the father had a normal phenotype. Two individuals suffered from an autoimmune thyroiditis. Four individuals had had multiple episodes of infection, 3 had only incidental infections, and 14 never had any serious infection. Genotyping showed a normal Fc gamma RIIa phenotype distribution among the Fc gamma RIIIb- negative individuals, thus excluding the possibility that the presence of the favorable IgG2-binding low-responder isoform of Fc gamma RIIa (131-H) contributed to the overall absence of recurrent bacterial infections.