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Arch Dermatol. 2006;142:1643-1648.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Diagnosis: Trichodysplasia of immunosuppression.

MICROSCOPIC AND LABORATORY FINDINGS AND CLINICAL COURSE

Histopathologic examination of the skin biopsy specimens revealed distorted and enlarged follicular units with a widened inner root sheath, a hair matrix, and absent hair papillae. There was cornification with large eosinophilic trichohyaline granules and abortive hair shaft keratin formation. The outer root sheath was not conspicuous. Immunohistochemical studies, electron microscopy, and polymerase chain reaction evaluation failed to identify viral infection.

Initial treatment with daily 0.25% tretinoin cream was unsuccessful. The most cosmetically troubling lesions on the patient's face were treated surgically by shaving to the level of the surrounding skin. Subsequent treatment with 0.5% tazarotene gel has resulted in significant improvement.

DISCUSSION

Trichodysplasia of immunosuppression is a recently described clincopathologic entity in immunocompromised patients.¹ Case reports that are identified as trichodysplasia spinulosa, viral-associated trichodysplasia spinulosa, pilomatrix dysplasia, and cyclosporine-induced folliculodystrophy are likely the same disease.^1-6

In 1995, Izakovic et al⁷ reported a hairlike hyperkeratosis in renal transplant recipients. Their patients . . . [Full Text of this Article]