Preliminary Evaluation of in vivo Reflectance Confocal Microscopy Features of Neonatal Lupus Erythematosus

Abstract

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Neonatal lupus erythematosus (NLE) is a rare autoimmune disease, which needs to be distinguished from eczema, congenital syphilis, and tinea corporis in newborns. Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) could be a helpful noninvasive diagnostic tool, which has been used to evaluate several inflammatory skin conditions. The aim of this study was to describe the RCM characteristics of NLE. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Eleven NLE patients were included in the study, and all patients were evaluated clinically with RCM. We also evaluated RCM images from 11 eczema patients as controls. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Some major key diagnostic features of NLE can be observed by RCM: an enlarged honeycomb pattern (9/11, 81.8%), round-to-oval cyst-like structures were present (6/11, 54.5%), the normal ring-like structures were totally or partially obliterated (11/11, 100%) at the level of the dermo-epidermal junction, medium refractivity collagen fibers that were disorganized (10/11, 90.9%), numerous high refractivity round cells (11/11, 100%) in the dermis. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> RCM allows the visualization of major key diagnostic features of NLE and serves as a complementary diagnostic tool for NLE.