Skin manifestations of Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease: case report and review

Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease (KFD) is a histiocytic necrotising lymphadenitis, which is a benign disease of unknown aetiology. Misdiagnosing KFD as lymphoma or systemic lupus erythematosus is not uncommon due to the similarity of clinical and histopathological features of these diseases. A 12-year-old female suffered from cervical lymphadenopathy, leukocytopenia, fever and especially skin rash. The biopsy of the lymph node was compatible with KFD. The skin biopsy showed interface alterations with vacuolar degeneration of the basal cells suggesting lupus erythematosus; however, the patient did not fulfill the diagnostic criteria for systemic lupus erythematosus. After treatment with acetaminophen, fever subsided and the skin rashes disappeared without relapse during a 10-month follow-up period. Conclusion: the histopathological findings of cutaneous lesions in KFD are usually similar to those observed in the involved lymph nodes. This report suggests that interface change might be one of the pathological features of the cutaneous manifestations of KFD.Abbreviations KFD Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease - SLE systemic lupus erythematosus