Previously undescribed feature of intertrigo found in pediatric cohort

A novel central facial cutaneous manifestation of intertrigo was recently described in a cohort of adolescent subjects.

“We observed isolated cases of perialar intertrigo in children and teenagers that did not appear to correspond to any known clinical entity,” Adrien Sanchez, MD, of the department of dermatology-venereology at Hôpital Archet 2, CHU de Nice, France, and colleagues wrote.

In the prospective, multicenter cohort study, conducted from August 2017 to November 2019, Sanchez and colleagues described the clinical features observed in these subjects using a standardized questionnaire. If possible, subjects also underwent a Wood’s lamp examination of the intertrigo.

All participants had chronic perinasal intertrigo and were younger than 18 years. The final analysis included 41 participants, 25 boys and 16 girls, with an average age of 12.1 years.

Ninety-three percent of participants demonstrated bilateral intertrigo, while 54% were asymptomatic and 39% had pruritis.

Among the 78% of cases with active fluorescence, the study authors observed the presence of orange-red follicular fluorescence in the perialar region.

In 24.4% of cases, there was a presumptive diagnosis of acne. Other presumptive diagnoses included seborrheic dermatitis (19.5%), rosacea and psoriasis (9.8% each) and perioral dermatitis (7.3%). There was no diagnosis proposed in 22% of participants.

“We describe a previously undescribed clinical sign which is characterized by a chronic bilateral erythematous intertrigo located in the perialar region,” the study authors wrote. “It can be isolated or associated with various facial dermatoses.”