Bone disease in adolescents with acne fulminans and severe cystic acne : radiologic and scintigraphic findings

Acne fulminans is an uncommon form of ulcerative acne with acute onset. It usually affects adolescent boys who have associated musculoskeletal pain and septic fever. Osteolytic bone lesions have been reported in these patients. Severe cystic acne occurs almost equally in both sexes, but it has a less dramatic clinical course than acne fulminans and rarely causes ulcerative skin lesions and systemic symptoms. In this study we investigated the imaging features of bone lesions associated with acne fulminans and determined if patients with severe cystic acne have similar bone lesions.From 1970 through 1991, 24 patients with acne fulminans were treated in the dermatologic departments of Finnish hospitals. Radiologic (plain radiographs or conventional tomograms) or scintigraphic data were available for 21 patients and analyzed retrospectively. For comparison, 20 consecutive patients with severe cystic acne were examined prospectively with scintigraphy.Ten patients (48%) with acne fulminans had lytic bone lesion...