Sweet's syndrome and Disease

Sweet's syndrome should be considered in individuals with multiple nodules and plaques, often so edematous that they give the appearance of vesicles or bullae. Sweet's syndrome may affect either healthy individuals or persons with lymphoproliferative disease.

Extracutaneous sites of involvement include joints, muscles, eye, kidney (proteinuria, occasionally glomerulonephritis), and lung (neutrophilic infiltrates).

Symptoms of Sweet's syndrome

Sweet's syndrome is characterized by red to red-brown plaques and nodules that are frequently painful and occur primarily on the head, neck, and upper extremities.

The patients also have fever, neutrophilia, and a dense dermal infiltrate of neutrophils in the lesions.

Diagnosis of Sweet's diseases

In approximately 10% of the patients there is an associated malignancy, most commonly acute nonlymphocytic leukemia.

Sweet's syndrome has also been reported with lymphoma, chronic leukemia, myeloma, myelodysplastic syndromes, and solid tumors (primarily of the genitourinary tract).

Differential diagnosis of Sweet's syndrome

The differential diagnosis includes neutrophilic eccrine hidradenitis and atypical forms of pyoderma gangrenosum.

Amyloidosis
Connective tissue naevi
Dermatofibroma
Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans
Ehler's Danlos syndrome
Elastosis perforans serpiginosa
Keloids & hypertrophic scars
Lipodystrophy
Lipoma
Mastocytoma
Neurofibroma
Pseudoxanthoma elasticum
Reactive perforating collagenosis
Striae (stretch marks)
Eosinophilic fasciitis
Erythema multiforme
Histiocytoses
Jessner's lymphocytic infiltrate
Langerhans cell histiocytosis
Lymphocytoma cutis
Lymphomatoid papulosis
Mastocytosis
Morphoea
Non-Langerhans cell histiocytosis
Panniculitis
Reticulohistiocytosis
Sweet's disease
Systemic sclerosis
Atypical mycobacterial infection
Granuloma faciale
Granuloma annulare
Cutaneous tuberculosis
Leprosy
Pyogenic granuloma
Sarcoidosis