Transient Acantholytic Dermatosis

The ultrastructural features of lesions from three patients with transient acantholytic dermatosis of the type resembling Darier's disease by light microscopy were studied. The cellular changes appeared to reflect a mixture of acanthosis, acantholysis, dyskeratosis and cytoplasmic vacuolization which varied to a certain extent with the age of the lesion. The electron microscopic findings could not be distinguished from those of Darier's disease and it is suggested that the pathologic events in both diseases may reflect disturbances of the normal maturation of epidermal cells, rather than the production of unique lines of cells.