Two male patients with incontinentia pigmenti.

BACKGROUND

Incontinentia pigmenti (IP) is a rare, complex, X-linked genodermatosis in which skin changes are combined with defects of other organs. It appears almost exclusively in females and is usually lethal in men. It is estimated that according to the available reported cases, there have been approximately 900-1,200 affected individuals, out of which 60 males. The aim of the study was to report two additional individual male cases with IP.

CASE REPORTS: We discovered two male patients with IP according to standard IP diagnostic criteria. The diagnosis was made by a dermatologist and confirmed by cutaneous histopathology and ultrastructural analysis. The pedigrees, karyotype analyses and routine laboratory findings were made. Two male probands were the only ones with IP in their families, with no history of miscarriages. Both probands had normal karyotype. In one proband, acrocentric chromosomes of the group D had tendency of forming associations. Histopathological and ultrastructural skin analyses revealed findings typical for IP.

CONCLUSION

The detection of each male case is very valuable because of their rarity. Application of the standard diagnostic criteria is necessary for comparison and epidemiological analysis. Monitoring such probands allows a better determination of how genetic transmission occurs, and is important because of the different degrees of severity of IP.