Tegumentary manifestations of graft-versus-host disease in bone marrow transplantation recipients

Abstract

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a systemic disease that occurs in patients that receive immunocompetent lymphocytes. Pathophysiology involves an immunologic reaction between transplanted lymphocytes and tissues of the host, through an immune attack of donor T cells against recipient cells that differ from the donor's by histocompatibility antigens. It is a major complication of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. GVHD skin involvement is frequent and contributes to morbidity and mortality of bone marrow transplantation. Dermatologists have an impor tant role on patient´s evaluation, providing early diagnosis of GVHD disease and its complications, so as to follow-up these patients. In this review, we emphasize the skin manifestations of GVHD, taking into account our 14-year personal experience at Centro Nacional de Transplante de Medula Óssea/INCA/MS.