Minocycline-induced immune thrombocytopenia presenting as Schamberg's disease.

Minocycline hydrochloride, a synthetic tetracycline, is a systemic antibiotic that has received much attention over the past several years. Currently, minocycline is considered the most widely prescribed oral antibiotic in the management of acne. Minocycline has been associated with autoimmune events, hepatitis, lupus-like syndromes, serum sickness, vasculitis, Sweet's syndrome, and hyperpigmentation.

h-Caldesmon as a specific marker of smooth muscle cell differentiation in some soft tissue tumors of the skin.

Background: An existing problem in contemporary pathology is the classification and distinction of spindle cell soft tissue tumors of the skin. Markers such as alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA) and desmin, considered specific for smooth muscle cell (SMC), have been shown to be expressed in a variety of fibroblastic and myofibroblastic processes. High-molecular-weight caldesmon (h-caldesmon), one of two isoforms, is reported to be expressed exclusively by SMC and has recently been shown to be a specific marker of SMC tumors.