Thymoma Associated with Erythroid Aplasia, Bullous Skin Eruption, and the Lupus Erythematosus Cell Phenomenon

ExcerptThe constellation of anomalies and disease processes associated in unusual frequency with thymomas has been growing. It now includes myasthenia gravis (1-3), erythroid aplasia (4-8), and agammaglobulinemia (9, 10) as the best established associations. Less firmly established associations are hypoplasia of other marrow elements (11-13), the lupus erythematosus (LE) cell phenomenon (14-16), carditis (5, 14), positive Coombs' test (6, 15), and Cushing's syndrome (3, 17, 18). A patient is presented who developed erythroid aplasia, demonstrated the LE cell phenomenon, and had a thymoma removed while under treatment for a bullous skin eruption believed initially to be pemphigus vulgaris. Association of...