Could Jessner's lymphocytic infiltrate of the skin be a dermal variant of lupus erythematosus? An analysis of 210 cases.

Background And Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between Jessner's lymphocytic infiltration of the skin (JLI) and lupus erythematosus (LE), which has been the subject of debate since its initial description in 1953.

Material And Methods: This is a retrospective study including all patients with a histopathologically ascertained diagnosis of JLI performed at the Laboratoire d'Histopathologie Cutanée of the Strasbourg University Hospital between 1993 and 2003. Information about patient characteristics and follow-up data were retrieved between 2004 and 2005.

Granuloma faciale: a clinicopathologic study of 66 patients.

Background: Only case reports or studies of small series of patients have focused on granuloma faciale (GF).

Objective: We sought to describe the clinicopathologic characteristics of GF in a large series of patients.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 66 patients and 73 skin specimens.

On the regulation of hair keratin expression: lessons from studies in pilomatricomas.

Human hair follicles exhibit a complex pattern of sequential hair keratin expression in the hair matrix, cuticle, and cortex. In pilomatricomas, that is, benign skin tumors thought to arise from germinative matrix cells of the hair follicle and retaining morphological signs of cortical differentiation, this differential hair keratin pattern has been shown to be faithfully preserved in the lower and upper transitional cell compartments of the tumors. Here we show that also the co-expression of hair keratin hHa5 with its regulatory nuclear homeoprotein HOXC13 in matrix cells of the hair follicle is maintained in lower transitional cells of pilomatricomas.

[Epidemiological features of tumors of the skin and mucosal membranes in the department of dermatology at the Yalgado Ouedraogo National Hospital, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso].

We conducted a retrospective study of the files of all patients seen from 1 January 1992 through 31 December 1996 with tumors of the skin and mucosal membranes at the Yalgado Ouédraogo National Hospital in order to determine the epidemiologic features of this disease. The records revealed 988 patients presented 1024 tumors, which could be classified into 33 categories. Most of the patients (60.

Ocular manifestations in the inherited DNA repair disorders.

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) repair is a fundamental process designed to keep the integrity of genomic DNA that is continuously challenged by intrinsic or environmental induced alterations. Numerous genes involved in DNA repair have been cloned and are involved in different DNA repair pathways: base excision repair, nucleotide excision repair, mismatch repair, DNA recombination. Inherited conditions due to mutations in DNA repair genes include mainly: xeroderma pigmentosum, Cockayne syndrome, Trichothiodystrophy, Bloom syndrome, Rothmund-Thomson syndrome, and Werner syndrome.

The AESOP (adenopathy and extensive skin patch overlying a plasmacytoma) syndrome: report of 4 cases of a new syndrome revealing POEMS (polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, monoclonal protein, and skin changes) syndrome at a curable stage.

We describe an easily recognizable and previously not individualized clinical syndrome that can reveal solitary plasmacytoma of bone. We report 4 patients with a slowly extending violaceous skin patch overlying a solitary plasmacytoma of bone, associated with enlarged regional lymph nodes. Biopsies of the cutaneous lesion and the lymph nodes were not specific, although increased dermal mucin deposition and vascular proliferation were present in all skin specimens.

Inter-observer variation in the histopathological diagnosis of clinically suspicious pigmented skin lesions.

When a biopsy is taken of a suspicious pigmented skin lesion, histological examination is expected to establish the definitive diagnosis. This study evaluated the inter-observer variation of 20 pathologists in the histological diagnosis of a randomly selected set of suspicious pigmented skin lesions (PSLs), by comparing their diagnoses to a reference diagnosis. Overall sensitivity for melanoma was 87%, ranging from 55% to 100% between the observers.

Stromelysin 3 expression: a useful marker for the differential diagnosis dermatofibroma versus dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans.

Background: Stromelysin 3 (ST3) is a member of the metalloproteinase family, which is expressed in tissue remodeling processes such as scarring, embryogenesis, or tumoral invasion. Although the prognosis of breast cancers and extracutaneous squamous cell carcinomas is correlated with the level of expression of ST3, this staining has not yet found a routine application in dermatopathology.

Objective: Our purpose was to study by immunohistochemistry the expression of ST3 in dermatofibromas and dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFP).