10.5826/dpc.1202a62
text/xml
2160-9381
1793
en
Karima Senouci
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Dermatology Practical & Conceptual
belly
Secret of the" white belly button" during pregnancy demystified
Text.Serial.Journal
https://dpcj.org/index.php/dpc
Research Letter
2022-05-02
2021-05-16
2022-05-02
2022-05-24
e2022062
Dermatol Pract Concept
Karima Senouci
2022/05/02
10.5826/dpc.1202a62
e2022062
Department of Dermatology-Venereology, Ibn Sina University Hospital, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco
2160-9381
belly
en
e2022062
Sachdeva S. The dermatoses of pregnancy. Indian J Dermatol. 2008;53(3):103-105. DOI: 10.4103/0019-5154.43203. PMID: 19882004. PMCID: PMC2763729.
Secret of the" white belly button" during pregnancy demystified
https://dpcj.org/index.php/dpc/article/download/1793/1563
                       Secret of The “White Belly Button”
                         During Pregnancy Demystified
     Farah El Hadadi1, Line Mezni1, Laila Benzekri1, Mariame Meziane1, Karima Senouci1


1 Department of Dermatology-Venereology, Ibn Sina University Hospital, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco



Key words: hypopigmentation, pregnancy, depigmentation, belly
Citation: El Hadadi F, Mezni L, Benzekri L, Meziane M, Senouci K. Secret of the “white belly button” during pregnancy demystified.
Dermatol Pract Concept. 2022;12(2):e2022062. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5826/dpc.1202a62
Accepted: September 2, 2021; Published: April 2022
Copyright: ©2022 Kenani et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial License (BY-NC-4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/, which permits unrestricted noncommercial use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: None.
Authorship: All authors have contributed significantly to this publication
Corresponding author: Farah El Hadadi, Department of Dermatology-Venereology, Ibn Sina University Hospital, Mohammed V University,
Rabat, Morocco. E-mail: farahealhadadi1234@gmail.com




Introduction
During pregnancy, several physiological, hormonal, immu-
nological, metabolic and vascular changes occur [1]. The
skin is one of the first organs that maybe affected. We report
a case of a sudden whitish macular eruption on the belly that
occurred at 30 weeks of pregnancy.


Case Presentation
A 33-year-old female patient with no particular medical
­history at 36 weeks of pregnancy developed a white macule
with irregular borders on the belly with a downward exten-
sion which has occurred 6 weeks before (Figure 1) (Figure2).
The patient didn’t complain about itch or pain, and no scle-
rosis or scales were present on physical examination.


Conclusions
Pregnancy dermatoses are classified into: structural skin               Figure1. White macule of the belly with a downward extension and
changes, specific dermatoses of pregnancy and preexisting               irregular borders in a 36 week pregnant women.




Research Letter | Dermatol Pract Concept. 2022;12(2):e2022062                                                                         1
                                                          dermatosis of pregnancy [2]. A rare condition characterized
                                                          by the presence of a whitish macular eruption of the belly is
                                                          often a cause of concern in pregnant women. The “white belly
                                                          button” is a benign physiological phenomenon; it appears as
                                                          a sudden demarcation of “white areas” or a “skin pallor” that
                                                          affects the skin due to a vascular abnormality resulting from
                                                          an excessive stretching of the skin. The abrupt onset of this
                                                          macule has never been described or reported in any scientific
                                                          journal and the physio-pathological mechanism remains un-
                                                          known but can be explained by the presence of a tissue hy-
                                                          poxia as a result of vasoconstriction of small dermal vessels.
                                                             It is therefore important to differentiate this physiolog-
                                                          ical pigmentation from other skin conditions such as post
                                                          inflammatory hypopigmentation, vitiligo, nevus depigmen-
                                                          tosus pityriasis versicolor and white spot disease to avoid un-
                                                          necessary treatment and to reassure pregnant women about
                                                          the benignity of this condition.


                                                          References
                                                           1. Motosko CC, Bieber AK, Pomeranz MK, Stein JA, Martires KJ.
                                                              Physiologic changes of pregnancy: A review of the literature.
                                                              Int J Womens Dermatol. 2017;3(4):219–224. DOI: 10.1016/j​
                                                              .ijwd.2017.09.003. PMID: 29234716. PMCID: PMC5715231.
                                                           2. Sachdeva S. The dermatoses of pregnancy. Indian J Dermatol.
                                                              2008;53(3):103–105. DOI: 10.4103/0019-5154.43203. PMID:
Figure 2. Disappearance of the lesion after childbirth.       19882004. PMCID: PMC2763729.




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