Juvenile Spring Eruption: A Variant of Perniosis?

Juvenile spring eruption (JSE) is a unique condition that typically affects the helices of the ears of boys and young men. The classical clinical picture of JSE includes the abrupt onset of lesions after spending time outdoors in the early spring. Because of the papulovesicular nature of the rash and the history of sun exposure, JSE is considered a variant of polymorphous light eruption.

Systemic amyloidosis: unusual presentation mistaken for a recurrent scabies infection.

We report the case of a 63-year-old woman with a history of undifferentiated connective-tissue disease, polyarthritis, and bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome who presented with generalized pruritus and erythematous and excoriated papules on the trunk and extremities. Empiric scabies treatment was unsuccessful. Patch testing and T-cell receptor gene rearrangement studies were unremarkable.

Tumor necrosis factor α release in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of cutaneous lupus and dermatomyositis patients.

Introduction: Several studies have reported that TNFα is substantially increased within skin lesions of patients with discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE), subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus (SCLE) and dermatomyositis (DM) compared to controls. Elevated TNFα has been reported in the sera of some patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, DLE and SCLE, but not in the sera of patients with DM. Because of the key pathogenic role of autoimmunity in these diseases, in this study we sought to evaluate TNFα production by a readily available source of immune cells (namely, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs)) taken from controls and from patients with cutaneous lupus or DM.

PHACE without face? Infantile hemangiomas of the upper body region with minimal or absent facial hemangiomas and associated structural malformations.

Infantile hemangiomas can be associated with congenital anomalies such as PHACE syndrome with facial hemangiomas and genitourinary and spinal anomalies in the setting of lower body hemangiomas. We describe five infants in whom segmental hemangiomas involving the upper torso and extremities with absent or small facial hemangiomas were associated with structural anomalies similar to those reported with PHACE syndrome, including three with structural arterial anomalies of the subclavian arteries, three with aortic arch anomalies (right sided or narrowed arch), two with congenital heart disease (atrial septal defect and ventricular septal defect; tetralogy of Fallot), one with a retinal scar, and one with a sternal defect (scar). Two of five had small facial hemangiomas of the lower lip, but none had large segmental hemangiomas of the face.

The glutamate release inhibitor Riluzole decreases migration, invasion, and proliferation of melanoma cells.

The goal of this study was to examine the effects of metabotropic glutamate receptor-1 (GRM1) blockade on melanoma anchorage-independent growth and invasion. We performed colony and invasion assays using GRM1-expressing melanoma lines and the GRM1-negative UACC930 line. Using the glutamate-release inhibitor Riluzole or the non-competitive GRM1 antagonist BAY 36-7620 we were able to induce considerable inhibition of colony formation and invasion in GRM1-expressing melanoma lines.