Eighteen sensations after breast cancer surgery: a 5-year comparison of sentinel lymph node biopsy and axillary lymph node dissection.

Background: The aim of this study is to evaluate prevalence, severity, and level of distress of 18 sensations at baseline (3-15 days) and 5 years after breast cancer surgery, and compare sensations after sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) with those after SLNB plus immediate or delayed axillary lymph node dissection (ALND).

Methods: A total of 187 patients with breast cancer completed the Breast Sensation Assessment Scale at baseline and at 3, 6, 12, 24, and 60 months after surgery to assess prevalence, severity, and level of distress of sensations. Of these, 133 had SLNB, and 54 had SLNB and ALND.

Treatment of vitiligo with broadband ultraviolet B and vitamins.

Background: While oral psoralen plus ultraviolet A (PUVA) remains the most popular therapeutic modality for vitiligo, recent reports have shown that narrowband ultraviolet B (UVB) also induces significant repigmentation. In this study we evaluated the efficacy of broadband UVB on actively spreading, progressive vitiligo in patients who had been followed for many months (12 or more) in our practice, who continued to depigment despite treatment.

Methods: Nine patients with actively spreading vitiligo were exposed to broadband UVB 2-3 times per week at a starting dose of 20-30 mJ/cm(2).

Smallpox.

With recent events, the threat of bioterrorism has become a reality. In late 2001, multiple cases of cutaneous and inhalation anthrax were spread through the US mail. On the front line were dermatologists who diagnosed the first cases of cutaneous anthrax in New York City.

Gouty tophi: a squamous cell carcinoma mimicker?

Background: Digital lesions can have a broad differential diagnosis. Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), the most common digital malignant neoplasm, must be excluded as the cause of persistent digital lesions causing nail dystrophy.

Objective: To describe a patient with a periungual hyperkeratotic lesion on the left fifth digit which, upon initial dermatopathologic examination, appeared to be a malignancy.

The frequency selectivity of information-processing channels in the tactile sensory system.

The frequency selectivity of the P, NP I, and NP II channels of the four-channel model of mechanoreception for glabrous skin was measured psychophysically by an adaptation tuning curve procedure. The results substantially extend the frequency range over which the frequency selectivity of these channels is known and further confirm the hypothesis that the input stage of each of these channels consists of specific sensory nerve fibers and associated receptors. Specifically, the frequency characteristics of Pacinian nerve fibers, rapidly adapting (RA) nerve fibers, and slowly adapting Type II (SA II) nerve fibers were found to be the peripheral neurophysiological correlates of the P, NP I, and NP II channels, respectively.