Residual skin cancer after preoperative biopsy: evaluation by Mohs micrographic surgery.

Background: Some patients are referred for Mohs surgery with no or minimal clinical evidence of skin cancer at the biopsy site.

Objective: To determine the incidence of residual skin cancer at biopsy sites during Mohs micrographic surgery.

Methods: We evaluated all patients that underwent Mohs surgery for basal cell and squamous cell carcinomata in one year.

Immunologic abnormalities associated with primary anetoderma.

Background And Design: Primary anetoderma is a rare cutaneous elastolytic disorder, the etiopathogenesis of which has not yet been established. Six patients with primary anetoderma were studied in an attempt to assess the role of the immunologic system in the elastolytic process. The investigation included the medical history, physical examination, routine blood tests, specific tests for collagen diseases, prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time, thyroxine, indirect immunofluorescence test, and skin biopsies for histopathologic study and direct immunofluorescence.

A study of keratin expression in benign familial chronic pemphigus.

We studied keratin expression in the involved and uninvolved skin of six benign familial chronic pemphigus (BFCP) patients, using monoclonal antibodies specific for various keratin polypeptides and immunohistopathologic techniques. Normal and psoriatic (i.e.

Primary anetoderma associated with a wide spectrum of autoimmune abnormalities.

Although the underlying pathologic mechanisms of primary anetoderma have not yet been identified, data suggest the participation of an immunologic mechanism in some cases. In a woman with clinical and histopathologic features of primary anetoderma (Jadassohn-Pellizzari type) of 30 years' duration, laboratory investigation disclosed positive antinuclear factor, hypocomplementemia, hypergammaglobulinemia, granular deposits of immunoreactants along the dermoepidermal junction, and fibrillar deposits in the papillary dermis. In addition, she was found to have autoimmune hemolysis and circulating lupus anticoagulant associated with recurrent deep-vein thrombosis and a history of Graves' disease (starting 5 years after onset of primary anetoderma).

Esophageal involvement in pemphigus vulgaris: a clinical, histologic, and immunopathologic study.

Eleven newly diagnosed patients and one patient with pemphigus vulgaris who relapsed underwent endoscopy of the upper gastrointestinal tract. Three patients had blisters or erosions and two had longitudinal lines of erythema in the esophageal mucosa. In four patients histopathologic examination showed findings of pemphigus vulgaris but direct immunofluorescence was positive in all patients.