Clinical manifestations of cutaneous graft-versus-host disease after allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplantation: long-term follow-up results in a single Turkish centre.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical manifestations of cutaneous graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) developed after allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplantation. In all, 67 patients were evaluated: 49 patients developed acute GVHD, 17 patients developed de novo chronic GVHD and 29 developed secondary chronic (15 limited, 14 progressive) GVHD following acute cutaneous GVHD. Of the 46 patients with chronic GVHD, lichenoid lesions were observed in 32 and sclerodermoid lesions were observed in 12. In four patients with sclerodermoid cutaneous GVHD, these lesions occurred after a lichenoid phase. Oral lesions were present in 61% of the patients and six of them had only oral mucosal involvement without any skin lesions. Nail lesions were observed in 31% of the patients. During the follow-up period 15 patients with GVHD died and in 7 of them the cause of death was related to chronic GVHD. In conclusion, GVHD has a wide spectrum of cutaneous manifestations, which can be used as an important tool for the early diagnosis of the disease.