No abstract

To describe the relevant morphologic features and to create a simple diagnostic method for pigmented basal cell carcinoma (BCC) using in vivo cutaneous surface microscopy (ie, dermoscopy, dermatoscopy, or oil epiluminescence microscopy).Design: Pigmented skin lesions were photographed in vivo using immersion oil (surface microscopy). All pigmented skin lesions were excised and reviewed for histological diagnosis. Photographs of 142 pigmented BCCs, 142 invasive melanomas, and 142 benign pigmented skin lesions were randomly divided into 2 equally sized training and test sets. Images from the training set were scored for 45 surface microscopy features. From this a model was derived and tested on the independent test set.

No abstract

The 308-nm excimer laser has been shown to be safe and efficacious in the treatment of localized mild-to-moderate plaque-type psoriasis in adults. However, the laser's safety and efficacy has not yet been demonstrated in children. Four of seven children with a mean age of 11.0 years and 12 of 18 adults with a mean age of 48.8 years completed the full protocol. The most common reason for incompletion was noncompliance unrelated to side effects. Both the children (p=0.0200) and the adult groups (p=0.0009) yielded a significant decrease in psoriatic severity scores of their respective target lesions. The children group had a greater reduction (p=0.008) from a mean baseline target (PSS) of 5.75+/-1.71 to final of 0.50+/-0.58 (91.3% reduction) as compared to the adult treatment group from a mean baseline psoriatic severity score of 5.00+/-1.15 to final of 1.92+/-1.11 (61.6% reduction). However, there was no statistical difference between the mean total treatments required to achieve this result (p=0.112). Side effects were common, albeit minor and well tolerated. In conclusion, the 308 nm excimer laser appears to be a safe and effective treatment for localized psoriasis in children as well as in adults.

No abstract