Abstract
A patient with acute myelomonocytic leukemia is reported. He had presented erythroderma and atypical cellular infiltration of the skin 4 months prior to the detection of leukemia in the peripheral blood and bone marrow. Aleukemic leukemia cutis is a rare condition which is characterized by leukemic cells invading the skin prior to the observation of leukemic cells in the peripheral blood [1–3]. The cases of aleukemic leukemia cutis reported in the literature show little or no conformity in their clinical appearance [3–9]. Enzyme cytochemistry, immunocytological and electron-microscopic studies are of considerable help in differentiating the cutaneous infiltrates and in establishing early diagnosis [7, 9, 10]. We report herein a patient with erythroderma which regressed spontaneously, whereas microscopic examination of a cutaneous biopsy showed atypical cells infiltrating the dermis. After a period of 3 months, during which the patient remained free of lesions, he showed recurrence of the erythroderma while developing acute myelomonocytic leukemia.