J Dermatol . Three cases of COVID-19 patients presenting with erythema

[tetano]

J Dermatol


. 2020 Aug 17.
doi: 10.1111/1346-8138.15532. Online ahead of print.
Three cases of COVID-19 patients presenting with erythema


Masakazu Tamai ¹ , Aya Maekawa ¹ , Noriko Goto ¹ , Lindun Ge ² , Tsutomu Nishida ³ , Hiromi Iwahashi ⁴ , Akinori Yokomi ¹



Affiliations

• PMID: 32881072
• DOI: 10.1111/1346-8138.15532

Abstract

Individuals infected with the novel coronavirus (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 [SARS-CoV-2]) who develop coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) experience many symptoms; however, cutaneous manifestations are relatively rare. The authors encountered three patients with COVID-19 who presented with erythema and suspected viral rash. In all cases, erythema appeared after the onset of the initial symptoms of COVID-19. Erythema was considered to be caused by COVID-19 and not a drug-induced eruption because, in all cases, erythema was relieved merely by external medicine and oral antihistamines, without discontinuing the original medication. The authors' hospital accepted 69 COVID-19 patients between 22 February 2020 and 31 May 2020 and, of these, three (4.3%) exhibited eruptions, and all cases presented erythema. Except for seven patients who exhibited positive nasopharyngeal swab tests for SARS-CoV-2 RNA but no symptoms, three (4.8%) of the remaining 62 patients exhibited erythema. Although various types of eruptions have been reported in patients with COVID-19, erythema was the only type in our patients. Erythema in the three patients exhibited many similarities to that previously reported in COVID-19 patients, particularly in the manner it appeared and disappeared. For these reasons, these three cases were considered typical examples of erythema in patients with COVID-19. Considering previous studies and the three cases reported here, there is a high probability that SARS-CoV-2 can cause erythema.

Keywords: COVID‐19; cutaneous manifestations; eruption; erythema; rash.