Clinical analysis of lupus vulgaris: 12 case reports / 中华皮肤科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the clinical features and treatment of 12 cases of lupus vulgaris.Methods A comprehensive study was performed on 12 patients with lupus vulgaris.The clinical and histopathological features,misdiagnosis,treatment and prognosis of this entity were analyzed.Results Of these patients,83.3％ had a history of local trauma before the occurrence of lupus vulgaris.All the patients showed an early onset and long clinical course of lupus vulgaris,absence of obvious symptoms and variety in skin lesions.Lupus vulgaris was misdiagnosed at the first visit in all the patients.The final diagnosis was confirmed by histopathology,purified protein derivative (PPD) test,acid-fast staining,Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture,DNA sequencing,etc.Satisfactory outcomes were achieved in these patients after standard anti-tuberculosis treatment.Conclusions Lupus vulgaris is easy to be misdiagnosed and improperly treated due to its complicated clinical features.Clinicians should expand their knowledge about this entity,which can be diagnosed by histopathology and culture.