The “phantom” rash of Still’s disease
Theocharis Koufakis, Ioannis Gabranis
Corresponding author: Theocharis Koufakis, Department of Internal Medicine, General Hospital of Larissa, Larissa, Greece
Received: 07 Oct 2015 - Accepted: 16 Oct 2015 - Published: 20 Oct 2015
Domain: Clinical medicine
Keywords: Still´s disease, rash, fever
©Theocharis Koufakis et al. Pan African Medical Journal (ISSN: 1937-8688). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Theocharis Koufakis et al. The “phantom” rash of Still’s disease. Pan African Medical Journal. 2015;22:157. [doi: 10.11604/pamj.2015.22.157.8144]
Available online at: https://www.panafrican-med-journal.com//content/article/22/157/full
The “phantom” rash of Still’s disease
Theocharis Koufakis1,&, Ioannis Gabranis1
1Department of Internal Medicine, General Hospital of Larissa, Larissa, Greece
&Corresponding author
Theocharis Koufakis, Department of Internal Medicine, General Hospital of Larissa, Larissa, Greece
An 18-year-old, female patient presented with fever, sore throat and joint pain. Laboratory tests revealed elevated inflammation markers. During her hospitalization she presented a non-pruritic, salmon-colored rash, which was appearing with the fever in the evening hours and was vanishing during apyrexia. The rash could be seen in various parts of the body, such as the limbs, the face and the neck. The diagnosis of Adult-onset Still disease (AOSD) was established, since the patient was fulfilling the relevant criteria. AOSD is a rare, systemic inflammatory disorder of unknown etiology that typically presents as a high spiking fever accompanied by systemic symptoms. Various skin lesions have been described in patients with AOSD, both typical and atypical ones. Our patient presented significant clinical improvement after initiation of corticosteroid treatment.
Figure 1: a salmon-colored rash, appearing with the fever in the evening hours and vanishing during apyrexia, located at patient’s breast