Autoerythrocyte sensitization syndrome presenting with general neurodermatitis: factitious purpura or psychophysiological entity?

Autoerythrocyte sensitization syndrome (AES) is a disorder characterized by recurrent, spontaneous, painful bruising in patients with underlying psychosis and neurosis. Its pathogenesis is uncertain. Purpuric lesions reproduced by injections of washed autologous erythrocytes suggest an autoimmune etiology. The authors described a 50-year-old woman who presented with recurrent episodes of painful bruising for 8 months, along with a 2-year history of general chronic neurodermatitis. A diagnosis of AES was made on the basis of the clinical symptoms and laboratory examinations results: the positive autoerythrocyte sensitization test and psychophysiologic derangement. However, the noticeable symptoms, simultaneously identical distribution of the ecchymosis and neurodermatitis lesions, as well as concomitant symptom of itching over the ecchymosis, created doubts regarding the real etiopathogenesis of the ecchymosis and whether the ecchymosis in the present patient were just factitious purpura. The authors discuss the rarity of this case, which to the authors' knowledge, had not been previously reported in the literature.