A case of acute graft-versus-host disease following autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation

A 42-year-old woman developed severe erythema with exfoliative scaling on the bilateral palms and soles and erosive dermatitis on the axillae and groin eight days after an autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. She also developed exanthema; however she did not show intestinal, hepatic, or renal involvement. The skin biopsy revealed characteristic apoptotic cell death of the epidermis with eosinophilic necrosis, and she was diagnosed with acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). The cutaneous lesions responded to topical corticosteroid treatments and improved within a month without systemic immunosuppressing therapies. The cutaneous GVH reaction did not recur. However, she was treated with an intermittent thrombocyte transfusion because of persistent thrombocytopenia. On day 130, she developed intestinal pneumonia and died due to respiratory dysfunction. Unlike an allo-bone marrow graft, GVHD after an autologous stem cell transplantation is not common. Even for an autologous transplantation, GVH may develop with less characteristic clinical manifestations.