Background: Atypical fibroxanthoma (AFX) typically occurs on the head and neck of elderly white men. Usually considered a malignancy, it is treated with wide local excision (WLE) or total margin control using Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS).
Objective: To determine the most appropriate treatment for this tumor based on a review of cases treated at Mayo Clinic.
We developed and validated a measurement instrument (CLASI-Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus Disease Area and Severity Index) for lupus erythematosus that could be used in clinical trials. The instrument has separate scores for damage and activity. A group of seven American Dermato-Rheumatologists and the "American College of Rheumatology Response Criteria Committee on SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus)" assessed content validity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report an infant with depressed, hypopigmented, linear plaques of congenital onset on the lower extremity. The lesions were asymptomatic and the child was otherwise healthy. Despite the clinically obvious change in skin texture and color, histopathologic changes were subtle: a biopsy specimen showed hypopigmentation and a decrease in elastic fibers in the papillary and upper reticular dermis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To observe whether the use of antimalarials in combination resulted in significant improvement in the cutaneous signs and symptoms of patients with dermatomyositis who did not otherwise respond to the use of single-agent antimalarial therapy.
Design: Retrospective case series of 17 patients treated between January 1, 1991, and December 31, 2002.
Setting: An ambulatory medical dermatology clinic in an academic center.
Some of the most interesting occurrences in the history of skin transplantation in Europe and North America took place in India. This article highlights the development of the pedicle flap and the free skin graft through the 19th century, beginning, as is most appropriate in this field of applied science, with an exploration of the cultural mores that created the need for such grafts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMannose-binding lectin (MBL) is an integral part of the innate immune system and functions as an opsonin by binding to pathogens and certain apoptotic cells to promote their uptake by phagocytes. We recently identified an association of low-producing MBL polymorphisms with adult dermatomyositis (DM). Our model is that MBL deficiency leads to a defect in the clearance of apoptotic debris in the skin, thereby predisposing to photosensitive autoimmune disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe recently reported that the -308A tumor necrosis factor alpha promoter polymorphism is associated with the photosensitive disorder subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus and mediates an exaggerated tumor necrosis factor alpha response to ultraviolet B. We now sought to examine the association of this polymorphism with adult dermatomyositis, a photosensitive disease that exhibits some features in common with subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus. Fifty adult patients with dermatomyositis and 239 healthy, race-matched controls were examined for the -308A tumor necrosis factor alpha polymorphism and the more common -308G allele.
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