In the January edition of the A.M.A. Archives of Dermatology and Syphilology an interesting article entitled "Idiopathic Atrophoderma of Pasini and Pierini" was published by Dr. Orlando Canizares et al.1 They presented five cases of this rare entity and reviewed the literature from 1908 through 1956.
The outstanding features of this entity are as follows:
The condition is observed in young persons, usually in the teens or twenties, starting with an insidious onset, and more often in women than men.
The trunk is chiefly affected with the back almost invariably involved, while the face, hands, and feet are almost invariably free.
The lesions vary in size from a few centimeters to patches covering large areas of the trunk.
The lesions are bluish-violaceous or brownish-blue in color, depressed from the surrounding skin with a sharp, abrupt, "cliff drop" border, or a gradual slant. Palpation of the plaques fails to detect any induration