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Livedo reticularis is associated with collagen vascular diseases and other vaso-occlusive disorders in a substantial number of cases. In the remaining cases the cause of livedo reticularis is still unknown. (i.e., idiopathic). We sought to determine a possible causal relationship between idiopathic livedo reticularis and autoimmune factors associated with the coagulation system, including antiendothelial cell antibodies. Nine patients with idiopathic livedo reticularis were studied. All patients were found to have normal platelet count, fibrinogen levels, and prothrombin and activated partial thromboplastin times, as well as negative results for Venereal Disease Research Laboratory and D-timer tests. Anticoagulant activity was detected in 2 patients: one had positive results of thromboplastin titration index and Russell's viper venom test, as well as increased levels of anticardiolipin antibodies and anti-endothelial cell antibodies; the other has positive thromboplastin titration index, mildly increased levels of anti-endothelial cell antibodies, and markedly increased levels of antinuclear antibodies. A third patient had mildly increased levels of anti-endothelial cell antibodies alone, and a fourth patient had mildly increased levels of antinuclear antibodies only. The clinical outcome was uneventful in all of the patients during an 18-month follow-up period. These findings suggest involvement of autoimmune factors associated with the coagulation system in some patients with idiopathic livedo reticularis, whose clinical significance remains to be determined.

The lipid compositions of 8 normolipidemic xanthelasma palpebrarum (XP) lesions were analyzed using thin-layer chromatography, with the adjacent uninvolved skin used as control. The lesions were found to be composed predominantly of cholesterol, mostly cholesteryl ester, whereas in the control specimens phospholipids predominated. The degradation rates of 125I-low-density lipoprotein (LDL), oxidized LDL, and acetyl LDL, and the rates of intracellular cholesterol synthesis from 1,2-(14)C-acetate, in blood monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) from 3 normolipidemic patients, were similar to those of MDM from 3 normal control subjects. The mean levels of lipid peroxides and conjugated dienes under basal conditions, as well as following the addition of a free radical-generating compound (2,2-azobis-2-amidinopropane hydrochloride) to the plasma of 14 normolipidemic XP patients were significantly higher than those of 14 age- and sex-matched normal controls. We conclude that the predominant lipid accumulated in normolipidemic XP lesions is cholesteryl ester, but there is no evidence for intrinsic cellular cholesterol metabolism derangement in blood MDM from patients which could account for this. Since macrophage cholesterol accumulation can also result from enhanced uptake of increased levels of oxidized LDL, the increased plasma lipid peroxidation (derived from oxidized LDL) might lead to accumulation of cholesterol in macrophages and formation of foam cells via this mechanism.

One hundred patients with viral warts and 108 apparently healthy matched controls were typed for HLA-A and B antigens. No significant difference in the frequencies of antigens was revealed, which suggested that a possible genetic trend in warts is at least not related to A and B loci of the histocompatibility system.

Leukocyte inhibitory factor (LIF) was investigated in 9 patients with localized granuloma annulare and 8 patients with the generalized form of the disease. The control group consisted of 10 matched, apparently healthy subjects. LIF values were significantly higher in patients with granuloma annulare of both groups than in controls (p less than 0.05 and 0.01). However, no significant difference was revealed between the two groups of patients. Though the results seem to speak for a cell-mediated immune response in granuloma annulare, they do not add a further support to the previously demonstrated differences between the two forms of granuloma annulare.