A minimally invasive human in vivo cutaneous wound model for the evaluation of innate skin reactivity and healing status.

Individual variability in skin reactivity and healing capacity after trauma are important clinical issues. The aims were to develop an in vivo, human wound model based on a standardised minimal skin injury and to demonstrate therapeutic effect of simple wound therapies in terms of morphological wound outcome with changes in skin blood perfusion as a quantified indicator of wound healing. In a series of experiments, wounds were induced on the normal forearm skin of volunteers using a blood collection lancet.

The skin pathergy test: innately useful?

Pathergy is the term used to describe hyper-reactivity of the skin that occurs in response to minimal trauma. A positive skin pathergy test (SPT), characterised by erythematous induration at the site of the needle stick with a small pustule containing sterile pus at its centre, is among the criteria required for a diagnosis of Behçet's disease (BD) and in certain population has been shown to be highly specific for this condition. Problems with standardising the induction manoeuvre for the SPT as well as the method of assessment of the response have limited the usefulness of the SPT in the clinical setting.

The syndrome of hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer (HLRCC): The clinical features of an individual with a fumarate hydratase gene mutation.

A 55-year-old woman presented with multiple cutaneous leiomyomas and multiple uterine leiomyomas (fibroids). The clinical diagnosis of the autosomal dominant hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer (HLRCC) syndrome was confirmed by identification of a fumarate hydratase gene mutation. This case highlights the need to consider the possibility of renal and uterine cancer in members of cutaneous leiomyomatosis families.

The performance of SolarScan: an automated dermoscopy image analysis instrument for the diagnosis of primary melanoma.

Objective: To describe the diagnostic performance of SolarScan (Polartechnics Ltd, Sydney, Australia), an automated instrument for the diagnosis of primary melanoma.

Design: Images from a data set of 2430 lesions (382 were melanomas; median Breslow thickness, 0.36 mm) were divided into a training set and an independent test set at a ratio of approximately 2:1.