Fox-Fordyce disease: do not mix it up with Fordyce ONLY !

• Fox-Fordyce disease is also known as apocrine miliaria:
  • It appears as papules in apocrine gland bearing areas such as the axillae, the pubic areas and around the areolae.
  • It is due to a chronic obstruction of the apocrine glands
  • It was described by Dr George Henry Fox (1846-1937), an American dermatologist from New York
• Dr John Addison Fordyce (1858-1926, also from New York described the histopathology of the lesion.
  He described many other conditions:
  • Fordyce’s glands (also known as Fordyce’s lesion, spot or disease) sebaceous glands located in genital area and on the lips / oral mucosa
  • Angiokeratoma of Fordyce: dilated blood vessels which appear as blue to red papules in the genital areas

Contributors

Dr Christophe Hsu – dermatologist. Geneva, Switzerland

Source of information: Crissey JT el al. Dermatology and Dermatologists (2002). Parthenon Publishing