Extensive Acquired Telangiectasias: Comparison of Generalized Essential Telangiectasia and Cutaneous Collagenous Vasculopathy

The late development of symmetrical, ascending telangiectasias over an extensive area of the skin with no associated systemic manifestations is a common presentation of generalized essential telangiectasia (GET). It was recently suggested that cutaneous collagenous vasculopathy (CCV) is clinically identical to GET but that the 2 conditions can be distinguished by their distinctive histopathologic findings. We present 2 patients, both women, with multiple telangiectasias and describe the histopathologic findings that led to the diagnoses of GET and CCV. Dermoscopic findings in both cases were similar, except that the older telangiectasias in the patient with CCV were violaceous and distributed in a tortuous, serpentine pattern. During follow-up 12 years for the woman with GET and 42 years for the woman with CCV we saw that in GET the lesions remained stable in appearance whereas in CCV there was progressive darkening and morphological changes eventually resulting in superficial varicose veins.