A case of acute cutaneous graft-versus-host disease mimicking psoriasis vulgaris

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a frequent complication occurring after allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and is divided into acute and chronic type. Cutaneous involvement is the most frequent manifestation of acute GVHD, with maculopapular exanthema and perifollicular papular lesions. We describe the first case to develop acute cutaneous GVHD mimicking psoriasis vulgaris shortly after allogenic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. The patient's rash resembled psoriasis vulgaris and showed histologic features of both psoriasis and acute GVHD. Despite various immunosuppressant therapies, the skin lesion was drug-resistant. Therefore, we administered psoralen-UVA (PUVA) therapy and achieved the desired therapeutic effect. As far as we know, this is the first case of psoriasiform skin eruption as a manifestation of acute GVHD. Copyright (C) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel.