Leg ulcer in a 37-year-old man with Klinefelter's syndrome

Concerning the pathogenetic mechanisms of leg ulcers there are a lot of thi ngs, for example heredity, hormones or metabolism, which have to be conside red as a differential diagnosis. A 37-year-old man was hospitalized for the treatment of leg ulcers. We recognized small testes, bilateral gynecomasti a, female hips and thights; so we had the idea of Klinefelter's syndrome, w hich was confirmed by an analysis of chromosomes. There have been several r eports of hypostatic ulceration occuring in patients with Klinefelter's syn drome, they found a higher frequency (20-50 times) than in normal males. Af ter excluding a post-thrombotic syndrome laboratory findings showed an incr ease of anticardiolipin antibodies and plasminogen activator inhibitor too. Both are supposed to play an important role in pathogenesis of leg ulcers in patients with Klinefelter's syndrome.