Pathology of the hand, foot and mouth disease

Hand, foot, and mouth disease is a viral disease caused by coxsackie virus A16 and enterovirus 71.

Histology hand, foot and mouth disease

Hand, foot, and mouth disease is rarely biopsied.

Sections generally show acral skin with a lymphocytic infiltrate which infiltrators the epidermis (Figure 1). The infiltrator is associated with keratinocytes apoptosis in early injuries (figure 2). Figure 3 shows a high-power view of more established lesions: there is papillary dermal edema (lower half of the field), epidermal necrosis, dyskeratosisand intraepidermal vesiculation as a consequence of epidermal edema.

Special studies for hand, foot and mouth disease.

PCR Tissue block studies can be performed to identify coxsackievirus A16 and enterovirus 71.

Differential diagnosis hand, foot and mouth disease pathology

Erythema Multiforme: Early lesions of hand, foot, and mouth disease can be very similar to erythema multiforme. The clinical correlation can be very useful.