A Retrospective Review: Our Experience With an Adhesive-Based Pigmented Lesion Assay Used to Evaluate Cutaneous Lesions Suspicious for Melanoma.

Background: Being one of the largest dermatology groups in the country with an in-house pathology laboratory, we have seen a significant increase in the number of adhesive-based pigmented lesion assays (ABPLAs) in addition to biopsies and excisions following a moderate-risk or high-risk result with this test.

Objective: To report our clinical experience and independently confirm that our results with this ABPLA (Pigmented lesion assay, DermTech. San Diego, CA) are consistent with the results of the validation studies completed by the test manufacturer.

Metastatic Tonsil Squamous Cell Carcinoma: An Important Consideration in the Differential Diagnosis of Malignant Basaloid Neoplasms in the Skin: Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Malignant basaloid neoplasms of the skin are frequent, and their accurate diagnosis holds paramount importance for treatment and prognosis. However, these neoplasms can present diagnostic challenges because of their extensive differential diagnosis, which encompasses cutaneous metastasis among many other possibilities. We present a case of a 74-year-old man with a history of p16-positive palatine tonsil squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) treated with surgery and adjuvant radiation with no prior evidence of recurrence who presented to the dermatologist with 2 chin papules.

Fluctuating facial edema as a rare manifestation of cutaneous polyarteritis nodosa: Case report and review of the literature.

Polyarteritis nodosa (PAN) is a necrotizing vasculitis. The clinical manifestations are determined by the location of the compromised arteries. Cutaneous PAN can present as nodular lesions similar to erythema nodosum, palpable purpura, livedo reticularis, and ulceration.

Eosinophilic cytoplasmic inclusion bodies in vesicular multinucleated melanocytes: a clue to the diagnosis of benign melanocytic lesions.

Different types of multinucleated melanocytes have been described in benign and malignant melanocytic lesions. Here we describe a relatively common, though underappreciated, type of multinucleated melanocyte characterized by abundant vesicular and fibrillary-appearing cytoplasm containing one or multiple eosinophilic inclusion bodies. In our experience, these vesicular multinucleated melanocytes with inclusion bodies are invariably seen in nevi of long duration.

Cytologic diagnosis of blastocystis hominis in peritoneal fluid: a case report.

Background: Blastocystis hominis is the most common parasite identified in s worldwide. Although it is commonly identified in stool preparations, unusual to encounter B hominis in abdominal fluid.

Case: A 46-year-old woman presented with the clinical impression of acute peritonitis.

Epigenetics of cutaneous melanoma.

Tumorigenesis is traditionally thought to be caused by the imbalance between oncogenes and tumor-suppressor genes. Epigenetics is a recently described phenomenon that uses an alternative mechanism to explain the transcriptional inactivation of tumor-suppressor genes predominantly by hypermethylation of the promoter regions. Hypermethylation of these regions has been described extensively in many neoplasms, including cutaneous melanoma.

Genomic analysis of circulating cells: a window into atherosclerosis.

Translational studies using genomic techniques in cardiovascular diseases are still in their infancy. Access to disease-associated cardiovascular tissues from patients has been a major impediment to progress in contrast to the diagnostic advances made by oncologists using gene expression on readily available tumor samples. Nonetheless, progress is being made for atherosclerosis by carefully designed experiments utilizing diseased tissue or surrogate specimens.

p53 regulates mitochondrial respiration.

The energy that sustains cancer cells is derived preferentially from glycolysis. This metabolic change, the Warburg effect, was one of the first alterations in cancer cells recognized as conferring a survival advantage. Here, we show that p53, one of the most frequently mutated genes in cancers, modulates the balance between the utilization of respiratory and glycolytic pathways.

Kruppel-like factor 2 (KLF2) regulates proinflammatory activation of monocytes.

The mechanisms regulating activation of monocytes remain incompletely understood. Herein we provide evidence that Kruppel-like factor 2 (KLF2) inhibits proinflammatory activation of monocytes. In vitro, KLF2 expression in monocytes is reduced by cytokine activation or differentiation.

Atherosclerotic plaque macrophage transcriptional regulators are expressed in blood and modulated by tristetraprolin.

Circulating monocytes and plaque macrophages mediate inflammation in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. We purified these cells from patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy for advanced atherosclerosis and examined their in vivo transcriptomes using the serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) technique. We observed striking differences in transcriptional regulators as monocytes transformed into plaque macrophages in contrast to monocytes and lung macrophages from normal subjects.

Circulating transcriptome reveals markers of atherosclerosis.

Circulating monocytes mediate inflammation in atherosclerosis and may serve as easily accessible reporters of disease. To search for markers of atherosclerosis, we compared the in vivo transcriptomes of monocytes purified from patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy and normal subjects by using the serial analysis of gene expression technique. We selected a subset of differentially expressed monocyte-specific genes and confirmed their expression levels.

Current and future applications of SAGE to cardiovascular medicine.

The recently sequenced mammalian genomes represent unprecedented resources for advancing our understanding of human diseases. Characterizing gene expression is an important step in translating genomic sequences into clinically useful information. Currently, gene expression studies are revolutionizing the approaches taken to address both basic science and clinical questions.

Serial analysis of gene expression: technical considerations and applications to cardiovascular biology.

It has been 7 years since serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) and microarray hybridization techniques were simultaneously introduced to allow the screening of thousands of expressed genes. Both techniques have stood up to the test of time as evidenced by their widespread use, and both have been used for studying cardiovascular diseases. SAGE has been used more extensively to study cancer cells, but it has also been used to examine gene expression in systems as divergent as rice seedlings, yeast, and Caenorhabditis elegans.