Production and validation of durable, high quality standardized malaria microscopy slides for teaching, testing and quality assurance during an era of declining diagnostic proficiency.

Background: Sets of Giemsa-stained, blood smear slides with systematically verified composite diagnoses would contribute substantially to development of externally validated quality assurance systems for the microscopic diagnosis of malaria.

Methods: whole blood from Plasmodium-positive donors in Cambodia and Indonesia and individuals with no history of risk for malaria was collected. Using standard operating procedures, technicians prepared Giemsa-stained thick and thin smears from each donor.

Nonendemic pemphigus foliaceus in children.

Background: Pemphigus foliaceus is a cutaneous, autoimmune, blistering disease comprising two major categories: endemic and sporadic. The endemic form, also known as fogo selvagem, primarily affects children and young adults in rural Brazil. In contrast, the sporadic form of pemphigus foliaceus is generally a disease of the middle-aged and elderly.

Cryofibrinogenemia in a patient with B-cell lymphoma.

Cryofibrinogenemia is an uncommon cause of intravascular coagulation necrosis of the skin and occurs as a result of vascular occlusion from cryoproteins, which reversibly precipitate in cold temperatures. The disease is associated with various conditions, most commonly neoplastic and thromboembolic diseases, and produces cutaneous manifestations such as purpura, ecchymoses, gangrene, and ulcerations. Diagnosis is based on clinical cutaneous manifestations, histopathology, and the laboratory detection of cryofibrinogen precipitation.