A case report of stasis dermatitis in a patient with Klinefelter's syndrome

Abstract

A 46-year-old male had suffered from varix and chronic eczema with occasional pain on his both legs since he was 27 years old. When he was 30 years old, he was treated with stripping surgery at his nearby hospital, but symptoms still persisted after surgery. In April, 2003, he visited our hospital with complaint of severe pain over left ankle joint. We diagnosed this case as stasis dermatitis, based on his clinical history and presentation. But, from his appearance, we suspected that any other primary diseases might have been related with it. We performed clinical investigations and relevant laboratory examinations, which confirmed diagnosis of Klinefelter's syndrome. He had been treated with monthly testosterone injection since he was 30 years old. Klinefelter's syndrome, which is one of the abnormal sex chromosome disorder, is caused by an X-chromosome aberrations, in general, 47XXY karyotype. The patients are usually presented with tall stature, small testis, long extremities and gynecomastia. But reports of varix and leg ulcer are relatively rare. We review the other case reports that suggested varix and stasis dermatitis associated with Klinefelter's syndrome. In Japan, a total of 21 cases of patients accompanied with leg ulcer was reported, 5 cases with varix, and 5 cases with stasis dermatitis. In our patient, treatment with oral prednisolone resulted in the improvement of his dermatitis.