A 31-year-old woman with no personal history of interest who came to the emergency department due to a 5-day history of non-evanescent skin lesions on the trunk and upper limbs that were not pruritic or painful. During history-taking, she also reported dry cough and dysthermia, denying prior medication.
On physical examination, discreetly palpable, plaque-confluent, erythematous maculopapular lesions were observed, with no epidermal component, distributed in the abdomen, neckline and inner side of the arms (Fig. 1 ).
Figure 1.
Suspecting SARS-coronavirus-2 (COVID-19) infection, a chest X-ray was requested, showing parenchymal consolidation in the right middle lobe. The blood test highlighted the elevation of acute phase reactants. The nasopharyngeal swab PCR was positive for SARS-coronavirus-2.
The patient was admitted with a diagnosis of pneumonia and dermatosis in the context of COVID-19, and the lesions resolved in parallel with the remission of the respiratory symptoms after one week.
Even though it is a respiratory pathogen, dermatological symptoms, such as hives or rashes, have been described in relation to COVID-19. Knowledge of these skin lesions can be useful for diagnosis, occasionally being, as in this case, one of the main symptoms of the initial clinical presentation.
Footnotes
Please cite this article as: Falkenhain López D, Sánchez-Velázquez A, Ortiz de Frutos J. Rash maculopapuloso como manifestación inicial de infección por SARS-coronavirus-2. Med Clin (Barc). 2020;155:92.