Clinical Case Vignettes

En coup de sabre

Swetha J^1*

Author Affiliations

 ^1*ChanRe Rheumatology & Immunology Center & Research, Bengaluru, India

Correspondence: Dr. Swetha J

drswetha.j31@gmail.com

IJCR. 2016;1(1):V2.

Received: 5 July 2016, Accepted: 21 July 2016, Published: 29 August 2016

© IJCR

A 26-year-old female presented with the occurrence of a linear scar on forehead from past 1 year (Fig.1), which increased gradually in size and depth. She had scarring alopecia (linear) on the upper end of the linear scar. In addition, she had headache since one year, and watering and pain in right eye since 2 months. The antinuclear antibody (ANA) showed 1+, while the profile was all negative. MRI of brain showed mild concavity in scalp outline in right frontal region. No abnormal soft tissue swelling or underlying bone destruction was noted.

En coup de sabre, a variant of linear scleroderma, presents as an indented, vertical, colorless, line of skin on the forehead. The indentation appears as a sabre cut on the forehead. It may be associated with atrophy of muscles underlying bone and rarely the brain tissue. The present patient was ANA positive with a negative profile. Based on the findings, the disease was diagnosed as linear scleroderma.

Fig. 1: Presentation of a linear scar on forehead

Competing interests

The author declares that she has no competing interests.