Clinicopathologic findings in (anti-FcepsilonR1alpha) autoimmune-related chronic urticaria.

Background: One cause of chronic urticaria is autoreactivity which is diagnosed by detecting autoantibodies against the IgE receptor alpha subunit (anti-Fc R1alpha).

Objective: To compare the histopathologic features of chronic urticaria patients testing positive for anti-IgE receptor antibody (Ab) to those testing negative.

Methods: Totally, 438 patients with a clinical presentation of chronic urticaria (2011-2013) had anti-IgE receptor Ab tested and 37 of those patients had skin biopsy.

Nodular mastocytosis.

Mastocytosis refers to a group of disorders characterized by the pathologic proliferation of mast cells. We present a 70-year-old white man with a rare presentation of nodular mastocytosis, characterized by disseminated nodular lesions, myelodysplastic syndrome, and a c-kit V560G receptor mutation. The patient presented to the clinic after initial presentation 6 months earlier, with ear pruritus, associated hearing loss, and widespread rash.

Sleep and quality of life in breast cancer patients.

This study described sleep in a heterogeneous sample of breast cancer patients using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and examined the relation between sleep disturbance and health-related quality of life as measured by the Rand 36-Item Health Survey. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy were explored as predictors of sleep disturbance in breast cancer patients, and the sleep characteristics of breast cancer patients were compared to the sleep characteristics of a sample of medical patients with general medical conditions. Results showed that 61% of breast cancer patients had significant sleep problems.