Solitary morphoea profunda.

This study describes a series of patients with an unusual form of scleroderma. All five patients presented clinically with solitary, indurated plaques involving the upper trunk. Histologically the lesions were characterized by a dense, mononuclear cell infiltrate mainly in the subcutis, which was rich in plasma cells, and was associated with marked sclerosis and hyalinization of the connective tissue at this level. Lymphoid aggregates with germinal centre formation were present in three patients and tissue eosinophilia in one. No lesion has shown spontaneous resolution but neither has systemic involvement occurred, despite a maximum follow-up of 17 years. Immunohistochemical studies revealed a mixed population of T and B lymphocytes with no evidence of immunoglobulin light-chain restriction. We believe that the clinical and histological features in these five cases are sufficiently distinct to merit description under the title of 'solitary morphoea profunda'.