Livedoid vasculopathy

What it is

A rare vascular skin disease characterized by recurrent focal non-inflammatory thrombosis of dermal venulae, predominantly of the lower extremities, resulting in a cutaneous response manifested as pruritus and painful papules and erythematous plaques. The lesions evolve into hemorrhagic vesicles or bullae, which rupture and turn into painful ulcers merging into reticulate, confluent, geometric, and painful ulcerations. During a period of a few months, the ulcerations change to porcelain-white atrophic scars with punctate telangiectasia (so-called atrophie blanche). In active disease, lesions in different stages coexist.

Key facts

Prevalence

1-9 / 100 000 (annual incidence, United States)

Age of onset

Adolescent, Adult

Inheritance

Not applicable

Classified as

Clinical syndrome

Prevalence figures describe populations, not individuals, and are often estimates from a single study. Where the figure is an incidence or a birth prevalence, it says so.

Signs and symptoms

These ranges are how often a sign appears across everyone diagnosed, not a prediction for one person — most people have some of these and not others. Orphanet also records findings that are specifically absent in this disease; those are in the data but not listed here.

ICD-10 codes

Related health topics

Reached through the ICD-10 categories this disease is filed under, so these describe the broader group rather than this disease specifically.

Cross-references