ABSTRACT
SUMMARY Erysipelatoid Carcinoma (EC), also known as Inflammatory Metastatic Carcinoma, is a rare form of cutaneous metastasis, secondary to an internal malignancy, more often related to breast cancer. Clinically, the lesion has a well-marked, bound erythematous appearance, much like an infectious process, such as erysipelas and cellulitis, these being the most common differential diagnoses. It is characterized by an acute or subacute appearance with an erythematous plaque, sometimes hot and painful, being more often situated in the primary tumor vicinity, especially in the thorax wall in the region of a mastectomy due to breast cancer. Here we present the case of a 75-year-old patient with ductal infiltrated carcinoma for 3 years, who presented an acute erythematous and infiltrated plaque in the region of a previous mastectomy, with a final diagnosis of EC.
Subject(s)
Humans , Female , Aged , Skin Neoplasms/secondary , Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast/secondary , Erysipeloid/pathology , Inflammatory Breast Neoplasms/pathology , Skin Neoplasms/diagnosis , Skin Neoplasms/pathology , Thorax , Breast , Breast Neoplasms/surgery , Breast Neoplasms/pathology , Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast/pathology , Diagnosis, Differential , Erysipeloid/diagnosis , Erythema/pathologyABSTRACT
Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae endocarditis in man is a very rare disease. The bacteria can be easily misiden- tified as nonpathogenic gram-positive bacilli or streptococci. This organism was isolated from blood samples taken from a 39-year-old male farmer with subacute bacterial endocarditis. The patient had cirrhosis of the liver; diabetes, and tuberculosis. The isolate showed typical cultural and biochemical characteristics such as facultative growth, formation of small greenish colonies on blood agar, positive hydrogen sulfide, negative catalase, and nonmotility. The isolate was susceptible to penicillin G and the cephalosporins.