Enliven: Clinical Dermatology

An Original Clinical Study on Photo-Sparing Pityriasis Rosea a?" A Rare Variant of this Exanthem
Author(s): Antonio Chuh MD FRCP FRCPCH, and Vijay Zawar MD DNB DVD FAAD

Background: The usual distribution of lesions in pityriasis rosea (PR) is on the trunk and proximal aspects of the limbs. Only two patients with photo-sparing PR, denoting that the sun-exposed skin regions bear much less or no lesions as compared to the skin regions sheltered from sunlight, have been reported.

Objectives: To investigate the proportional incidence, risk factors, clinical features, co-morbid associations, and complications of photo-sparing PR.

Methods: Our settings were skin clinics. We searched our clinical database, and retrieved clinical data of patients with PR and photo-sparing PR over eight calendar years.

Results: In these eight years, 612 patients were seen and diagnosed as PR by us. Out of such, clinical records of three patients with photo-sparing PR were retrieved by us. We reported their clinical features. We noted no risk factor, no co-morbid association, and no complication for these three patients.

Conclusions: Patients with photo-sparing PR are rare, with the proportional incidence being in the order of 0.49%. Apart from rash distribution, the clinical features of photo-sparing PR are very similar to patients with classical PR. From our limited data, we found no risk factor, no co-morbidity, and no complication for patients with photo-sparing PR.