FIVE CASES OF TICK BITE

Tick bites in Korea

BACKGROUND

Tick bites are dermatoses not commonly encountered in Korea. Recognizing their clinical signs as well as their histopathologic findings is important in making a diagnosis of tick-related dermatoses. The incidence and causative species are different depending on the geographic areas. The histopathologic findings of tick bites are known to be a variable depending on the species of ticks involved and the duration of their bloodsucking.

METHODS

Five ticks were collected from five patients and three of them were identified as Ixodes (I.) nipponensis.

RESULTS

Histopathologic findings of panniculitis were prominent in four of five cases; septal panniculitis in two cases, and lobular panniculitis in the other cases.

CONCLUSIONS

Ixodes nipponensis was the most common causative species of ticks responsible for tick bites in Korea, and tick bite panniculitis must be considered in the differential diagnosis of panniculitis which is mainly composed of neutrophils.

Tick bite: two cases studied by scanning electron microscopy

The attachment of ticks to human skin has been studied by scanning electron microscopy. Intact specimens of Ixodes ovatus and Ixodes persulcatus were examined, and we also studied the skin of two patients who had been bitten by these two species. In the first case, the remains of the tick were visible and a homogeneous cement-like substance was observed on the dorsal hypostome and in the dermis, suggesting that the tick attaches itself to the host skin by a secretion. In the second case, the apices of some denticles of the hypostome were chipped. Two months later, the skin which the tick had attacked was biopsied and yellowish-brown particles, probably derived from the denticles, were seen in foreign body giant cells in the dermis.