Lymphogranuloma venereum complicated by squamous cell carcinoma: a case report / 中华皮肤科杂志

ABSTRACT

A 53-year-old man was admitted to the hospital for verrucous hyperplasia on the circular sulcus for 2 years as well as erythematous painful swelling, ulcer and rupture of inguinal lymph nodes for more than 2 months. Physical examination revealed erythematous, indurated and painful swelling of bilateral inguinal lymph nodes. Fluctuation could be felt at the centre of the right swollen inguinal lymph nodes, where several pores were seen with yellowish-white purulent fluid flowing out, giving the appearance of a watering can. Multiple swollen or ulcerative lymph nodes were separated by the inguinal ligament forming the groove sign.There were irregular, indurated, verrucous, proliferative and keratinized lesions sized 1 cm × 2 cm on both sides of the circular sulcus. The right scrotum was obviously swelling. Erythematous, fluctuating swelling, ulcer and rupture of the glans fraenum were also observed with yellowish-white purulent exudates. Neither the secretion from the skin lesions on the surface of bilateral inguinal lymph nodes nor the puncture sample from the right groin was positive for multiple fungal or bacterial culture, acid-fast stain or first culture of C. trachomatis.However, the endogenous plasmid of Chlamydia was successfully amplified by PCR from these samples, and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the major outer membrane protein (MOMP) suggested that the genotype of the Chlamydia strain was L3. Western blot revealed the presence of anti-MOMP antibodies and anti-Pmp H antibodies (titer ＞ 1 800) in serum. Culture of C. trachomatis also gave positive results after multiple passage. Biopsy of the verrucous hyperplasia on the right groin is consistent with well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma of the skin. A diagnosis of lymphogranuloma venereum complicated by cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma was made.