Vitiligo is an acquired, disfiguring skin disease characterized by the loss of melanin, which results in depigmented areas of the skin. It affects at least 1% of the world's population. In countries where people are dark skinned, vitiligo is a major health problem. The pathogenesis of vitiligo has not been fully elucidated, but three possible origins, autoimmune, neurohumoral and self destruction of melanocyte, have been described. The clinical manifestations of vitiligo are well described in many reports. However in Korea, a few studies on the clinical features of vitiligo have been performed. Authors studied 217 Korean cases of vitiligo who had been visited at the Department of Dermatology, Kyung Hee University Hospital during the last 1 year (1978.4.1~1979.3.31). (countinued..)
Dermatology ; Korea ; Melanins ; Melanocytes ; Skin ; Skin Diseases ; Vitiligo*

A typical case of gelinerazed cutalineous lichen amyloidosus is reported. A 62-year-old female had had brownish papular lesions on the lower legs, hands, and shoulders for about 8 years. Three years later, the papular lesions extended through the whole body surface. She complained of severe itching and tingling sensation. Physical findings were confined to the skin. The skin lesions were diffusely distributed. The size of the lesion was from pin-head to rice, The color was dark brownish. The papules were over generalized skin except for the face, palms, and sole.. Diagnosis was made by the characteristic clinical manifestations and histopathologic findings of the skin. However, the specimens of the liver and rectal biopsies did not show amyloid deposits. Based on these findings, authors concluded that this is a case of generalized cutaneous lichen amvloidosus and this is the second case in the literature in Korea. Even though the subjective symptom such as itching is getting decrease, the clinical course of this disease could not be aliernated by classical and conventional therapeutic regimens.
Biopsy ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Hand ; Humans ; Korea ; Leg ; Lichens* ; Liver ; Middle Aged ; Plaque, Amyloid ; Pruritus ; Sensation ; Shoulder ; Skin

Dyschromatosis symmetrica hereditaria is one of the pigmentary disorders of the skin which has been reported mainly from Japan. It appeara to be determined by an autosomal dominant gene. Clinical characteristics of the disease are reticulate or mottled pigmentation with areas of depigmentation on the backs of the hands and feet and sometimes on the arms and legs without any subjective symptoms which develop during infancy or early childhood. We described five individual members with dyschromatosis symmetrica hereditaria in two families, one family had three individuals in three generations and the other family had two individuals in two generations. Literatures were briefly reviewed.
Arm ; Family Characteristics ; Foot ; Genes, Dominant ; Hand ; Humans ; Japan ; Leg ; Pigmentation ; Skin

Syringoma is not a uncommon tumor of the skin. It is a benign adenoma, of intraepidermal eccrine ducts. It occurs predominantly in women at puberty or adolescence. The lesions usually are multiple and small, skin colored or slightly yellowish payules, usually only 1 or 3mm in size. The lesions usually are limited to the lower eyelids but may occur on cheek, axilla, abdomen, neck, anterior chest and vulva. Rarely these are generalized in distributior. A 23 years old healthy man has had widespread lesions over the face, anterior chest and abdomen. The lesions appeared at the age of 13 on the anterior chest and abdomen. These increased in number and extended slowly to the face On visiting our department, there were numerous, angular or round, skin colored papules on his face and anterior chest as well as yellowish brown colored papules on his abdomen. Diagnosis was confirmed by clinical and histopathological findings as generalized syringoma.
Abdomen ; Adenoma ; Adolescent ; Axilla ; Cheek ; Diagnosis ; Eyelids ; Female ; Humans ; Neck ; Puberty ; Skin ; Syringoma* ; Thorax ; Vulva ; Young Adult

The authors eneountered a 39 years old male patient with extensive Fordyce's disease involving the upper lip and buccal mucous mernbrane. The skin lestens were small, discrete and grouped yellowish white papules of about 10 years duration. Diagnosis was made by the characteristic clinical and histopatholqgiC findings.
Adult ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Lip ; Male ; Skin

We conducted a prospective case-control study to evaluate the conjunctival cytotoxicity of low-dose mitomycin C instillation by impression cytology which was performed preoperatively, postoperative 1 week and 2 weeks in patients undergoing pterygium excision. The case group consisted of 35 patients with postoperative 0.02% topical mitomycin C for 1 week and the control group consisted of 10 patients without postoperative mitomycin C. Impression cytologic findings were graded to 4 scores. Compared to preoperative values there was stastically significant difference in grading scores at postoperative 1 week and 2 weeks (P=0.001, 0.0026) between the groups. Within the case group, the grading scores after 1 week were significantly higher than preoperative values (P=0.0001), but grading scores a 2 weeks decreased significantly compared to those at 1 week and the prevalence of grade 2 or more was also decreased from 40% to 20%. The patients over 50 years of age showed significantly higher gading scores than the patients below 50 years of age (P=0.0038) up to 2 weeks within the case group. Our results revealed that the conjunctiva could be damaged by lowdose mitomycin C and this damage may be more severe and persist longer in elderly. This study suggests that the possible conjunctival cyotoxicity should be considered when using topical mitomycin C eyedrops in management of glaucoma.
Aged ; Case-Control Studies ; Conjunctiva ; Glaucoma ; Humans ; Mitomycin* ; Ophthalmic Solutions ; Prevalence ; Prospective Studies ; Pterygium

Central serous chorioretinopathy(CSC) is a retinal disorder that typically affects young and middle-aged adults. It is characterized by the accumulation of subretinal fluid at the posterior pole of the fundus, causing a circumscribed area of retinal detachment. It is essentially benign and self-limited, generally requiring no treatment. However, a few patients have permanent visual loss because of subretinal fibrosis following a nonrhegmatogenous, bullous retinal detachment with shifting subretinal fluid. The authors experienced a case of CSC with bilateral bullous retinal detachment in a 36 year old male patient. A subretinal fibrotic band developed in both maculae and permanent visual loss of both eyes occurred. We report this unusual case with literature review.
Adult ; Central Serous Chorioretinopathy* ; Fibrosis ; Humans ; Male ; Retinal Detachment* ; Retinaldehyde* ; Subretinal Fluid

Pericarditis and myocarditis are characterised by electrocardiographic changes and elevated cardiac enzymes, respectively, and patients with perimyocarditis often complain of chest discomfort. These findings are nonspecific and often lead to diagnostic difficulties, as ST-elevation myocardial infarction commonly presents in a similar fashion. Clinical differentiation between perimyocarditis and myocardial infarction are especially important because adverse side effects can occur if reperfusion therapy is administered for a patient with acute pericarditis or if a diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction is missed. We herein describe a case of perimyocarditis with ST elevation and raised cardiac markers, which led to two emergency coronary angiographies that were subsequently found to be normal. We include the three serial electrocardiographies (ECGs) performed to show the characteristic features of perimyocarditis and further discuss the importance of identifying typical and atypical ECG features of pericarditis.
Acute Disease ; Aged ; Biopsy ; Blood Pressure ; Coronary Angiography ; Electrocardiography ; Female ; Humans ; Myocardial Infarction ; pathology ; Myocarditis ; diagnosis ; physiopathology

OBJECTIVE: The content of meconium in amniotic fluid(AF) is important for assessing the risk of several perinatal problems. This estimate is usually performed subjectively by visual inspection. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the clinical usefulness of meconium-crit method as an objective method for quantitative measurement of meconium content in AF. METHODS: Seventy of AF samples were obtained with amniocentesis from the pregnants of 30 weeks and over. Twenty-four of meconium-stained AF(MSAF)samples among them were separated through the subjective and gross assessment of clinicians. MSAF samples, except for the two samples contaminated by blood, were again divided into two categories: AF with fresh-meconium (11 samples) and AF with old-meconium(11 samples). Absorption spectra and meconium-crit of the samples were measured. RESULTS: Correlation coefficients between meconium-crit and absorption spectra at 425nm were 0.741 for 11 AF with fresh meconium, 0.255 for AF with old meconium and 0.354 for all MSAF samples. Those at 550nm were 0.934 for 11 AF with fresh meconium, 0.669 for 11 AF with old meconium and 0.639 for all MSAF samples. Those at 700nm were 0.916 for 11 AF with fresh meconium, 0.680 for 11 AF with old meconium and 0.706 for all MSAF samples. Analyses of correlation coefficients show very good or excellent relationship between absorption spectra and meconium-crit for AF with fresh meconium while little or moderate relationship for AF with old meconium. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore meconium-crit can be used as the objective and quantitative method that can measure meconium content in AF although variable results are shown in AF with old meconium.
Absorption ; Amniocentesis ; Amniotic Fluid* ; Female ; Meconium*