Ichthyosis Follicularis

Abstract

Ichthyosis follicularis occupies a sentence to a few paragraphs in most representative textbooks of dermatology. Our interest in this entity was recently stimulated when we had the opportunity to study two patients who presented cutaneous abnormalities characteristic of ichthyosis follicularis. A study of our cases and of the very few reports in the literature inspired a critical analysis of this disease. Report of Cases Case1.—An 8-year-old, mentally retarded, Negro boy was seen in dermatologic consultation on April 19, 1958, at the Rosewood State Training School because of extensive alopecia. The family history revealed no maternal abnormalities. Two paternal cousins suffered from mental illness of an unknown nature, and one paternal cousin was epileptic. The patient's two siblings were without mental retardation or cutaneous abnormalities. The pregnancy was free of complications, and the delivery was noninstrumental. Scalp hair was absent at birth. The child's development was re