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Edmund C. Settle, Jr, MD

JAMA. 1983;250(13):1749-1750.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

AUTOERYTHROCYTE sensitization was first described in 1955 by Gardner and Diamond¹ as a syndrome of recurrent, painful bruising largely confined to the extremities. An autoimmune sensitization to the patient's own RBCs was postulated as the underlying mechanism, since typical symptoms were reproduced by intracutaneous injection of patients with their own RBCs but not by other injected agents. Neither normal individuals nor patients with erythema nodosum reacted to autologous RBC injection.

In an extensive review of this disorder, Ratnoff² noted 100 cases, 95% of them female, with the most common age at onset of 14 to 40 years. Trauma or surgery, originally thought to be precipitants, has been absent in many subsequent patients. Bruising is usually preceded by a prodrome of burning, painful paresthesias in the involved extremity or by some systemic symptom such as malaise, headache, or gastrointestinal (GI) disturbance. Lesions begin with an area of warmth, erythema, and . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Psychiatry, West Virginia University Medical School, Charleston.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to 5600 MacCorkle Ave SE, Charleston, WV 25304 (Dr Settle).

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