Abstract
A 76-year-old Japanese woman, suffering from diabetes mellitus had been treated with 250 mg/day of acetohexamide for the last three years. This patient presented with geographic erythematous macules and plaques on both the trunk and extremities, which were first noticed by the ophthalmologist who took care of her diabetic cataracta, in March 1989. Individual lesions were characterized by marginal tiny pustules and branny scales associateel with a tendency to fuse to each other, particularly in the axillae, inguinal folds and submammary areas. A biopsy specimen revealed a subcorneal pustule formation together with mild hyperkeratosis and parakeratosis. The skin lesions had spontaneusly diminished after the acetohexamide administration was discontinued. The diabetes mellitus of this patient was therefore eventually treated with insulin injections because the alternative medicines for diabetes, such as gliclazide, also caused similar skin eruptions.
