Urosevic-Maiwald Mirjana, Hardenberg Jan-Hendrik B, Hafner Jürg, Brüggen Marie-Charlotte
Hautärzte-Zentrum am Zürisee, 8008 Zurich, Switzerland.
Faculty of Medicine Zurich, University Zurich, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland.
Dermatopathology (Basel). 2022 Jun 29;9(3):207-211. doi: 10.3390/dermatopathology9030026.
The use of levamisole as the most frequent adulterant of cocaine has merged in previously unknown toxicities, notably a disease entity called cocaine/levamisole-associated autoimmune syndrome (CLAAS). Clinically, CLAAS can manifest with diverse cutaneous and extracutaneous features sharing common laboratory findings (neutropenia, autoantibody patterns). We report the case of a cocaine-abusing female patient with relapsing episodes of painful ulcers, worsening and expanding over a three-year period. The case exhibited all features of a drug-induced, skin-limited, ANCA-associated vasculitis, evolving over time to PG-like findings. In both disease stages, the patient responded well to the cessation of cocaine exposure and systemic glucocorticosteroids. This case demonstrates the continuous nature of cutaneous CLAAS manifestations in a single patient. CLAAS has become a major public health issue in the at-risk group of cocaine users, and clinicians should be alert of this condition when treating cocaine users presenting with single or multiple skin ulcerations.
左旋咪唑作为可卡因最常见的掺杂物,引发了此前未知的毒性反应,尤其是一种名为可卡因/左旋咪唑相关自身免疫综合征(CLAAS)的疾病实体。临床上,CLAAS可表现出多种皮肤和皮肤外特征,并具有共同的实验室检查结果(中性粒细胞减少、自身抗体模式)。我们报告了一例滥用可卡因的女性患者,其疼痛性溃疡反复发作,在三年时间里不断恶化并扩大。该病例呈现出药物诱导的、局限于皮肤的、抗中性粒细胞胞浆抗体(ANCA)相关血管炎的所有特征,随着时间推移发展为类似持久性隆起性红斑(PG)的表现。在两个疾病阶段,患者在停止接触可卡因和使用全身性糖皮质激素后反应良好。该病例证明了CLAAS在单一患者中皮肤表现的持续性。CLAAS已成为可卡因使用者高危群体中的一个重大公共卫生问题,临床医生在治疗出现单个或多个皮肤溃疡的可卡因使用者时应警惕这种情况。