Broader Practice Indications for Mohs Surgical Defect Healing by Secondary Intention: A Survey Study.

Background: Recent reports have indicated secondary intention (SI) healing utilization for Mohs surgical defects beyond conventionally accepted indications.

Objective: To characterize potentially more expansive guidelines for when SI healing is indicated or appropriate in dermatologic surgery.

Methods: A survey study was e-mailed to the American College of Mohs Surgery in 2015.

Mycobacterium avium complex infection.

We report the case of a 30-year-old woman with a three-year history of papules, nodules, and multiple ulcers of the left lower extremity. A skin biopsy specimen showed dermal fibrosis and patchy granulomatous inflammation in the upper-to-mid dermis that was associated with a perivascular, lymphohistiocytic infiltrate along with granulomas and necrosis in the subcutaneous fat. Tissue culture showed Mycobacterium avium complex infection.

Hemifacial atrophy.

We report the case of a 44-year-old woman with a one-year history of en coup de sabre morphea and progressive hemifacial atrophy with ipsilateral hemifacial neuralgia, migraine, and contralateral neurologic abnormalities. While rare, Parry-Romberg syndrome typically presents in the first or second decade of life; this patient's case is unusual in that the onset of her disease is demonstrated at age 43. Common clinical features, laboratory findings, and pathogenetic theories are discussed.

Development of an accurate index for predicting outcomes of patients with acute liver failure.

Background & Aims: Patients with acute liver failure (ALF) have high mortality and frequently require liver transplantation (LT); few reliable prognostic markers are available. Levels of M30, a cleavage product of cytokeratin-18 caspase, are significantly increased in serum samples from patients with ALF who die or undergo LT. We developed a prognostic index for ALF based on level of M30 and commonly measured clinical variables (called the Acute Liver Failure Study Group [ALFSG] index) and compared its accuracy with that of the King's College criteria (KCC) and Model for End Stage Liver Disease (MELD).

Calciphylaxis: a systematic review of existing and emerging therapies.

Calciphylaxis, also known as calcific uremic arteriolopathy, is a cutaneous ischemic small vessel vasculopathy seen in 1 to 4% of patients with chronic kidney disease on hemodialysis. It is associated with extreme pain and a 60 to 80% mortality rate in the setting of few and frequently ineffective therapeutic options, although this may be changing based on reports of success with newer therapies.

Conservation of the pro-apoptotic nuclease activity of endonuclease G in unicellular trypanosomatid parasites.

Endonuclease G is a mitochondrial protein implicated in DNA fragmentation during apoptosis in cell types ranging from fungi to mammals. Features of programmed cell death have been reported in a number of single-celled organisms, including the human trypanosomatid parasites Leishmania and Trypanosoma. However, the protozoan cell death pathways and the effector molecules involved in such processes remain to be identified.