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Lifelong severe verrucosis associated with human papillomavirus type 2: report of a case with a 38‐year follow‐up
Author(s) -
Requena,
Sarasa,
Terai,
Sata,
Matsukura
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
british journal of dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.304
H-Index - 179
eISSN - 1365-2133
pISSN - 0007-0963
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2133.1998.02571.x
Subject(s) - epidermodysplasia verruciformis , common warts , pityriasis , pathology , histopathology , medicine , papillomaviridae , population , dermatology , human papillomavirus , virology , virus , cancer , cervical cancer , environmental health
We describe a 67‐year‐old woman with disseminated warts which she had had for more than 38 years. The lesions consisted of common and plane warts, wart‐like plaques and red‐brownish macules similar to those in pityriasis versicolor. Furthermore, during follow‐up, several solar keratoses, plaques of Bowen's disease and invasive squamous cell carcinomas were excised. The patient also had T‐cell immunodeficiency of unknown aetiology. Histopathology demonstrated that all the warts showed the cytopathological features of common warts, but not those of the warts in epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV). We investigated the presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA in the warts by blot hybridization and molecular cloning and found that the lesions harboured HPV 2, but not EV–HPVs or other HPVs. In addition, the histopathological distribution of the viral DNA was confirmed in paraffin sections of warts from the patient at different ages by in situ hybridization. However, these investigations yielded negative results in specimens of Bowen's disease and invasive squamous cell carcinoma. These results demonstrated that the patient had been infected with HPV 2 from childhood, but the negative results for detection of DNA of HPV 2 in carcinomas from the patient do not support an oncogenic potential for HPV 2. In conclusion, HPV 2, an aetiological agent of common warts in the general population, may induce a lifelong severe verrucosis in some immunosuppressed patients.