Massive cutaneous hyalinosis. A newly recognized disease.

A disease characterized by massive tumorous cutaneous hyalinosis has been studied histologically, immunologically, and biochemically. The precipitated hyalin material differed from amyloid in being Congo-red-negative and ultrastructurally nonfibrillary. In lipoid proteinosis, massive hyalin deposits have not been encountered and the clinical course is distinct from the course of massive cutaneous hyalinosis. The clinical and histologic pictures of both adult and juvenile forms of colloid milium differed from that found in our patient, although the colloid milium in adult form is ultrastructurally also nonfibrillary like the hyalin from our patient. A strong humoral immune response to components of the cytoskeleton of fibroblasts and especially to keratin was found in our patient.