Interface dermatitis

Abstract

The term interface dermatitis refers to those skin dermatoses in which an inflammatory process involves prevalently the dermo-epidermal junction, with injury and even necrosis of the basal cell keratinocytes. These dermatitis can be characterized further as being either vacuolar or showing lichenoid changes [1]. The most common interface dermatitis are characterized by prevalent lymphocytic interface infiltrate and are represented by two wide categories: cell-poor interface dermatitis, when only a sparse and focal infiltrate of inflammatory cells is present along the dermo-epidermal junction (erythema multiformis; autoimmune connective tissue disease, particularly systemic lupus erythematosus, dermatomyositis, and mixed connective tissue disease; graft-versus-host disease (GVHD); morbiliform viral exanthema; and some drug reactions), or cell rich, which typically occurs as a heavy band-like infiltrate that obscures the basal layers of the epidermis (lichen planus, lichenoid hypersensitivity reactions of drug or contact-based etiology, lichenoid reactions in the setting of hepatobiliary disease, secondary syphilis, and autoimmune CTD) [2].