Hypomelanosis of Ito with a trisomy 2 mosaicism: a case report

INTRODUCTION: Hypomelanosis of Ito is a rare neurocutaneous disorder, characterized by streaks and swirls of hypopigmentation following the lines of Blaschko that may be associated to systemic abnormalities involving the central nervous system and musculoskeletal system. Despite the preponderance of reported sporadic hypomelanosis of Ito, few reports of familial hypomelanosis of Ito have been described. CASE PRESENTATION: A 6-month-old Caucasian girl presented with unilateral areas of hypomelanosis distributed on the left half of her body and her father presented with similar mosaic hypopigmented lesions on his upper chest. Whereas both blood karyotypes obtained from peripheral lymphocyte cultures were normal, a 16% trisomy 2 mosaicism was found in cultured skinfibroblasts derived from a hypopigmented skin area of her father. CONCLUSIONS: Familial cases of hypomelanosis of Ito are very rare and can occur in patients without systemic involvement. Hypomelanosis of Ito constitutes a non-specific diagnostic definition including different clinical entities with a wide phenotypic variability, either sporadic or familial. Unfortunately, a large number of cases remain misdiagnosed due to both diagnostic challenges and controversial issues on cutaneous biopsies in the pediatric population.