Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
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A tense yellow vesicle was noted on the back parietal scalp of a female newborn. This proved to be a bullous variant of aplasia cutis congenita. Only 16 cases of this apparently rare disorder have been previously reported. ⋯ Bullous aplasia cutis congenita is a rare clinical subtype of aplasia cutis congenita with distinctive histologic findings. We present a new case, and summarize the clinical and histologic findings of the 16 cases previously reported in the English-language literature. Bullous or membranous aplasia cutis congenita may represent a form fruste of a neural tube defect.
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J. Am. Acad. Dermatol. · May 2003
Modified ABC-point list of dermoscopy: A simplified and highly accurate dermoscopic algorithm for the diagnosis of cutaneous melanocytic lesions.
The use of dermoscopy (epiluminescence microscopy, surface microscopy, dermatoscopy) improves clinical diagnostic sensitivity by 10% to 27%, particularly achieved by different algorithms or scores. ⋯ The ABC-point list is simpler than the already established algorithms. Despite its simplicity, a high sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy was achieved. This simplified approach in dermoscopic diagnostics may contribute to further spread and enable to learn and use this method more easily.
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Skin diseases and their complications are a significant burden on the nation, both in terms of acute and chronic morbidities and their related expenditures for care. Because accurately calculating the cost of skin disease has proven difficult in the past, we present here multiple comparative techniques allowing a more expanded approach to estimating the overall economic burden. ⋯ Our determination of the economic burden of skin care in the United States surpasses past estimates several-fold, and the model presented for calculating cost of illness allows for tracking changes in national expenses for skin care in future studies. The amount of estimated resources devoted to skin disease management is far more than required to treat conditions such as urinary incontinence ($16 billion) and hypertension ($23 billion), but far less than required to treat musculoskeletal conditions ($193 billion).
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J. Am. Acad. Dermatol. · Apr 2003
Case ReportsNonpigmenting solitary fixed drug eruption caused by a Chinese traditional herbal medicine, ma huang (Ephedra Hebra), mainly containing pseudoephedrine and ephedrine.
We describe a case of nonpigmenting solitary fixed drug eruption appearing on the right thigh of a 31-year-old woman in Japan. The causative drug was determined by closed patch test on postlesional skin as a Chinese traditional herbal medicine, ma huang (Ephedra Hebra), mainly containing pseudoephedrine and ephedrine.
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J. Am. Acad. Dermatol. · Mar 2003
Comparative StudyEvaluating invasive cutaneous melanoma: is the initial biopsy representative of the final depth?
An accurate initial biopsy of the deepest portion of the melanoma is vital to the management of patients with melanomas. ⋯ Deep shave biopsy is preferable to superficial shave or punch biopsy for thin and intermediate depth (<2 mm) melanomas when an initial sample is taken for diagnosis instead of complete excision. We found that a group of predominantly experienced dermatologists accurately assessed the depth of invasive melanoma by use of a variety of initial biopsy types.