Evidence of retroviral involvement in an Italian patient with Ofuji's disease

Ofuji's disease, also known as 'eosinophilic pustutal folliculitis', is a r are inflammatory skin disorder of unknown aetiology, which affects mostly a dult Japanese males. Only few Caucasian patients have been described so far . We report the case of a 44-year-old Italian woman with Ofuji's disease wh o had circulating antibodies against the recombinant envelope glycoprotein (Rgp461) of HTLV-1. By means of a very sensitive nested PCR, the tax region of HTLV-1, but not other regions, was found in peripheral blood mononuclea r cells. Our observations suggest that a retrovirus, closely related to HTL V but not yet identified, could be involved in the pathogenesis of the dise ase in this patient.