Lichen amyloidosis of the auricular concha: report of two cases and review of the literature

Abstract

Two cases of lichen amyloidosis of the auricular concha are presented here, supplementing the already approximately twenty cases of lichen amyloidosis of the auricular concha reported to date. The first patient is a 60-year-old woman who presented with a 4-year history of an itchy rash that started in the bowl of her left ear, and soon after appeared on the right side as well. The second patient is a 44-year-old woman who presented with a long-standing pruritic rash on her upper back. This had become noticeably darker over the past several years. In one of the two cases lichen amyloidosis of the auricular concha reported here, concomitant macular amyloidosis of the back was present. Combined cases of lichen and macular amyloidosis are termed biphasic amyloidosis, and provide support to the theory that these two variants of amyloidosis exist on the same disease spectrum.