Ischemic colitis and malignant atrophic papulosis.

A 37-year old male with a history of idiopathic nephrotic syndrome, hypertension, severe headaches and transient ischemic attacks developed ischemic colitis with stricture formation of the spelnic flexure. Eschemic changes were secondary to vascular lesions involving the middle colic artery and mulitple smaller arteries and arterioles. The vascular lesion is localized to the intimal layer with proliferation of spindle-shaped cells indentical to the gastrointestinal lesion of malignant atrophic papulosis (Degos' disease). The patient had no skin biopsy, or history of skin lesions. This case represents ischemic colitis in a patient with malignant atrophic papulosis with either absent or unrecognized skin lesions.