Inflammatory linear verrucous epidermal nevus (ILVEN) encompasses a spectrum of inflammatory mosaic disorders.

BACKGROUND

Inflammatory linear verrucous epidermal nevus (ILVEN) is a rare skin disease characterized by pruritic erythematous scaly plaques distributed along the lines of Blaschko. Two cases of ILVEN with CARD14 mutations and one case with a GJA1 mutation have been previously reported.

OBJECTIVE

To elucidate the genetic cause of a cohort of patients diagnosed based on clinical and histopathological evaluation with ILVEN.

METHODS

We recruited patients diagnosed with ILVEN based on clinical and histopathological criteria. Exome sequencing of affected skin with or without blood/saliva was performed and germline and somatic pathogenic variants were identified.

RESULTS

Five patients were enrolled. All had skin lesions from birth or early childhood. Two patients developed psoriasis vulgaris after the diagnosis of ILVEN. The first had a germline heterozygous CARD14 mutation and a post-zygotic hotspot mutation in KRT10. The histopathologic evaluation did not show epidermolytic hyperkeratosis. The second had a post-zygotic hotspot mutation in HRAS. Her ILVEN became itchy once psoriasis developed. One patient was re-diagnosed with linear porokeratosis based on a germline mutation in PMVK and a post-zygotic second-hit mutation. Two patients were re-diagnosed with congenital hemidysplasia with ichthyosiform nevus and limb defect nevus based on germline NSDHL mutations.

CONCLUSION

ILVEN is a clinical descriptor for a heterogenous group of mosaic inflammatory disorders. Genetic analysis has the potential to more precisely categorize ILVEN and permits pathogenesis-directed therapies in some cases.