ALLERGIC CONFIRMATION THAT SOME CASES OF ERYTHEMA ANNULARE CENTRIFUGUM ARE DERMATOPHYTIDS

Abstract

IN A PREVIOUS article it was stated that some cases of erythema annulare centrifugum are dermatophytids.1This was based on the fact that several cases of this disease were found to fulfill the minimal basic criteria for the diagnosis of a dermatophytid. In addition, in two of these cases, erythema annulare centrifugum was reproduced and abolished by the experimental production and eradication of tinea pedis. In 1930, Epstein and Grunmandel2presented a definitive work on the local immunoallergic changes occurring in tinea circinata. In both experimental and spontaneous human tinea circinata, they produced a cruciform superinfection through the center of the annular lesions and demonstrated by this method that local immunity occurred not only in the center of the resolving infection, but also in a zone around the fungous focus. These changes were demonstrable only during a specific phase of the disease. It is likely that this corresponds