Recurrence rates following surgical excision of periocular basal cell carcinomas: systematic review and meta-analysis.

Basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) remain one of the most common non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSCs). Surgical options include primary excision with predetermined margins, frozen section controlled excision, and Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS). There is no randomized study comparing recurrence rates between different surgical techniques for periocular BCCs.

Mohs surgery in Australia: a survey of work practices.

Background: Mohs micrographic surgery is the preferred treatment for certain skin cancers. It had already been considerably refined prior to its introduction into Australia in 1978, refinement has continued since. Documenting the work practices of Australian Mohs surgeons serves to clarify the current role of Mohs surgery and may help tailor future Mohs fellowship programs.

Allergy to tea tree oil: retrospective review of 41 cases with positive patch tests over 4.5 years.

Tea tree oil use is increasing, with considerable interest in it being a 'natural' antimicrobial. It is found in many commercially available skin and hair care products in Australia. We retrospectively reviewed our patch test data at the Skin and Cancer Foundation Victoria over a 4.

Photo-onycholysis due to indapamide.

Photo-onycholysis due to indapamide presented in a 75-year-old woman who was being treated with the diuretic for hypertension. The onset of her photo-onycholysis was delayed because of inadvertent photoprotection in the form of artificial nails and occurred in the absence of a generalized photosensitive eruption. Her nails returned to normal after withdrawal of the drug and application of opaque nail polish.

Fanconi's anemia cell lines show distinct mechanisms of cell death in response to mitomycin C or agonistic anti-Fas antibodies.

Background And Objectives: Fanconi anemia (FA) cells are characteristically hypersensitive to bifunctional alkylating agents, notably mitomycin C (MMC), causing increased programmed cell death (PCD). FA cells also have abnormalities in mitochondrial function. We hypothesized that the abnormalities in PCD are mitochondrially mediated.

Gene-specific chromatin damage in human spermatozoa can be blocked by antioxidants that target mitochondria.

Incubation of gradient purified human spermatozoa, which are routinely maintained in media prior to IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), induced DNA strand breaks (up to 89 nicks x 10(-3) bp) and chromatin release. Unlike highly dispersed Alu repeat sequences, the centromeric heterochromatin was much less susceptible to endonuclease attack. In addition to chromatin release, the permeability of the sperm membrane was altered as evidenced by reduced accessibility of sperm nuclei to decondensation factors in mouse embryo extracts.

Differential apoptosis and Fas expression on GPI-negative and GPI-positive stem cells: a mechanism for the evolution of paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria.

Paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria (PNH) has a dual pathogenesis. PIG-A mutations generate clones of haemopoietic stem cells (HSC) lacking glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins and, secondly, these clones expand because of a selective advantage related to bone marrow failure. The first aspect has been elucidated in detail, but the mechanisms leading to clonal expansion are not well understood.

Fidelity and reproducibility of antisense RNA amplification for the study of gene expression in human CD34+ haemopoietic stem and progenitor cells.

Microarrays provide a powerful tool for the study of haemopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSC). Because of the low frequency of HSC, it is rarely feasible to obtain enough mRNA for microarray hybridizations, and amplification will be necessary. Antisense RNA (aRNA) amplification is reported to give high-fidelity amplification, but most studies have used only qualitative validation.

The spectrum of PIG-A gene mutations in aplastic anemia/paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (AA/PNH): a high incidence of multiple mutations and evidence of a mutational hot spot.

Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) may arise during long-term follow- up of aplastic anemia (AA), and many AA patients have minor glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor-deficient clones, even at presentation. PIG-A gene mutations in AA/PNH and hemolytic PNH are thought to be similar, but studies on AA/PNH have been limited to individual cases and a few small series. We have studied a large series of AA patients with a GPI anchor-deficient clone (AA/PNH), including patients with minor clones, to determine whether their pattern of PIG-A mutations was identical to the reported spectrum in hemolytic PNH.