Generalized sweet syndrome lesions associated with behet disease: A true association or simply co-morbidity?

Abstract

Sweet syndrome or acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis is a condition characterized by painful erythematous papules, nodules, and plaques, which demonstrate mature neutrophilic infiltration of the upper dermis histopathologically, and is usually associated with systemic symptoms such as fever and neutrophilia. Generalized Sweet syndrome lesions are usually noted,in association with malignancies. Sweet syndrome lesions are rarely seen in patients with Behcet disease and, if present, are usually fewer in number.

In this report, we present two female patients who developed generalized Sweet syndrome lesions during follow-up after the diagnosis of Behcet disease. The clinical and histopathologic findings in our patients together with the data in the literature suggest that generalized Sweet syndrome lesions in a patient with clinically inactive Behcet disease should remind the clinician that a strict differential diagnosis needs to be made between Sweet syndrome associated with Behcet disease and the rare cutaneous manifestation of Behcet disease that resembles the lesions of Sweet syndrome.