Rare diseases · Sign or symptom
Petechiae
HP:0000967
What it means
Petechiae are pinpoint-sized reddish/purple spots, resembling a rash, that appear just under the skin or a mucous membrane when capillaries have ruptured and some superficial bleeding into the skin has happened. This term refers to an abnormally increased susceptibility to developing petechiae.
Rare diseases that can present with this28
Very common80–99%
4Common30–79%
12- Acute promyelocytic leukemia
- Bernard-Soulier syndrome
- Congenital syphilis
- Ethylmalonic encephalopathy
- Familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis
- Fetal and neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia
- Hemorrhagic fever-renal syndrome
- Immune thrombocytopenia
- Invasive meningococcal disease
- Kaposiform hemangioendothelioma
- Kasabach-Merritt phenomenon
- Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome
The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.
Part of the broader category
Tracking symptoms like this for someone? Eleplan keeps symptoms, diagnoses, medications and every specialist in one plan.
Start free with EleplanThis page uses the Human Phenotype Ontology (2026-06-23) — Human Phenotype Ontology Consortium, hpo.jax.org. Disease associations from Orphanet (INSERM), CC BY 4.0. Content is educational and is not medical advice.