Targetoid hemosiderotic hemangioma is a benign vascular tumor with a peculiar clinical presentation and histologic features sometimes difficult to differentiate from the patch stage of Kaposi's sarcoma, progressive lymphangioma, eosinophilic hemangioma, retiform hemangioendothelioma. We report a case of targetoid hemosiderotic hemangioma on upper back and right upper arm of a 28-year-old male. He has a 5mm × 5mm sized slightly raised violaceous papule surrounded by an ecchymotic halo on upper back and right upper arm. We took a biopsy of the lesion and identified it as targetoid hemosiderotic hemangioma. This is a case of targetoid hemosiderotic hemangioma with typical clinical and histopathological findings.
Adult ; Arm ; Biopsy ; Eosinophils ; Hemangioendothelioma ; Hemangioma* ; Humans ; Lymphangioma ; Male ; Sarcoma, Kaposi

Once splinter hemorrhage can be considered as a pathognomonic sign of subacute bacterial endocarditis. But it can also be associated with a variety of systemic disorders that increase capillary fragility or primary nail bed involvement in dermatologic disorders. The cause of splinter hemorrhage can usually be established by careful history and physical examination. We report a case of 33-year-old man with splinter hemorrhages, who had polycythemia vera.
Adult ; Capillary Fragility ; Endocarditis, Subacute Bacterial ; Hemorrhage* ; Humans ; Physical Examination ; Polycythemia Vera* ; Polycythemia*

BACKGROUND: The earlier laser treatment of patients with nevus flammeus or Ota nevus prevent psychologic dysfunction due to unwanted cutaneous lesion and the increasing size of lesion. OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to assess the safety and side effect of general anesthesia in the laser treatment of nevus flammeus or Ota nevus in children. METHODS: 25 children treated with laser for nevus flammeus or Ota nevus and underwent general anesthetic modality were included in this study. The age of patients, the size and the location of cutaneous lesions were noted. Most of children, after induction of anesthesia with thiopental and succinycholine, were maintained airway with intratracheal intubation. Some of children was done with intravenous anesthesia, propofol or ketamine. The results of laser treatment were assessed by photograph and clinical observation, based on a scale: excellent for 75-100% improvement, good for 50-75% improvement, fair for 25-50% improvement, poor for 0-25% improvement. RESULTS: 25 children treated with laser for nevus flammeus or Ota nevus were below 10 years old, eight of them were below 3 years old. The laser treatment was more effective in proportion with the number of laser treatment. After general anesthesia, all patients with laser treatment didn't appear the side effect of laryngeal spasm or apnea etc. Our data showed minimal risk and sequale of general anesthesia in the treatment of nevus flammeus or Ota nevus in children. CONCLUSION: The use of general anesthesia in the treatment of nevus flammeus or Ota nevus in children does not appear to be accompanied by increased risk.
Anesthesia ; Anesthesia, General* ; Anesthesia, Intravenous ; Apnea ; Child* ; Child, Preschool ; Humans ; Intubation, Intratracheal ; Ketamine ; Laryngismus ; Nevus of Ota ; Port-Wine Stain ; Propofol ; Thiopental

In the era of antibiotics, acute coalescent mastoiditis is a very uncommon event, but remains a potentially serious condition. Significant and even life-threatening complications beyond the tympanomastoid space may occur, including periauricular subperiosteal abscess, facial paralysis, meningitis, brain abscess, etc. However, there have appeared a few papers in the recent Korean literature on acute coalescent mastoiditis. Recently, we encountered with two cases of acute coalescent mastoidtitis complicated by subperiosteal abscess. Including incision and drainage of the abscess, parenteral antibiotic therapy was done for several days until the acute stage of infection was controlled. After that, simple mastoidectomy with ventilation tube insertion was carried out. We report these cases with review of literature.
Abscess* ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Brain Abscess ; Drainage ; Facial Paralysis ; Mastoid* ; Mastoiditis* ; Meningitis ; Ventilation

Squamous papilloma is a benign epithelial tumor that can develop in any mucosal site of the upper aerodigestive tract. While this tumor is found mainly in the squamocilliary junction, its distribution does not occur randomly. However, in many cases, squamous papilloma is asymptomatic, and only a small number of cases are diagnosed. We experienced a patient presented with the complaint of snoring. This patient was diagnosed as having squamous papilloma of the soft plate on the nasopharyngeal surface. The patient might have been misdiagnosed as having merely a simple snoring problem, as nothing was found upon macroscopic examination. Nevertheless, squamous papilloma was detected through fiberoptic nasopharyngolaryngoscopy. This patient was successfully treated with laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty, and we report this case, along with the associated literature.
Humans ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms ; Palate, Soft ; Papilloma ; Snoring

Arteriovenous malformation (AVM) consists of an abnormal connection between artery and vein without any interposed capillary bed, and is usually congenital. However, acquired AVM is quite rare, and is usually caused by injury, which induces direct arteriovenous shunting. Acquired digital AVM is a distinct entity, which was first described by Kadono et al. in 2000, and was thought to result from shunts between an artery and a vein in a finger tip. We report a case of acquired digital AVM in a 44-year-old women. The patient showed punctate hyperketatotic ectasia on the pulp of the right thumb. Histological finding showed dilated venous and arterial vessels in upper and lower dermis, and shunts between arteriols and venules.
Adult ; Arteries ; Arteriovenous Malformations* ; Capillaries ; Dermis ; Dilatation, Pathologic ; Female ; Fingers ; Humans ; Thumb ; Veins ; Venules

Chronic otitis media is defined as a condition associated with a perforation of the tympanic membrane with a history or existence of otorrhea. Chronic silent otitis media refers to chronic pathologic condition behind an intact tympanic membrane, which may be clinically undetected or undetectable. Because this chronic pathology is undetected, there is a lack of clinical treatment, which increases the risk of complications and sequelae. Otogenic intracranial complications in intact tympanic membrane are usually reported in pediatric patients with acute otitis media and are rare in immune-competent adult patients. We report two cases of immune-competent patients who suffered from intracranial complications of chronic silent otitis media, one leading to a lateral sinus thrombophlebitis and the other leading to meningitis.
Adult ; Humans ; Lateral Sinus Thrombosis ; Meningitis ; Otitis ; Otitis Media ; Tympanic Membrane

Dermatomyositis is a rare disease of unknown origin that combines an inflammatory myopathy with characteristic cutaneous findings. Scalp disease has rarely been considered as a manifestation of dermatomyositis and is often misdiagnosed as being scalp paosiasis or seborrheic dermatitis. We report a case of 27-year-old woman who presented with brownish alopecic patches on the scalp, and chronic proximal muscle weakness.
Adult ; Cicatrix* ; Dermatitis, Seborrheic ; Dermatomyositis* ; Female ; Humans ; Muscle Weakness ; Myositis ; Rare Diseases ; Scalp

BACKGROUND: Cheilitis is a common problem, the cause of which is often obscure. OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the frequency of allergic contact cheilitis and irritant contact cheilitis among 23 eczematous cheilitis patients via patch testing and assessment of past medical history. METHODS: This study consisted of 23 patients with eczematous cheilitis who had visited the Department of Dermatology, two University Hospital in Incheon, between January 2005 and August 2006. Of the 23 patients, 20 were female, and the age range was 15 to 70 years. We analyzed the clinical characteristics (age, gender, duration, atopic or allergic disease, lip licking) of the patients. All patients were patch-tested with the Korean standard series, 9 patients with the Cosmetic series and 5 patients with as is test. We then analyzed the results of the patch tests and evaluated the relevance of any positive results. RESULTS: Of the cases, 34.78% were identified as irritant contact dermatitis (ICD), and 30.43% as allergic contact dermatitis (ACD). Furthermore, of the 23 patients, 11 were positive to one or more antigen and 7 of these had a clinical relevance for positive antigen. The substances causing a positive reaction, triggering ACD were identified as medicaments applied to the lip, lipstick ingredients and toothpaste. CONCLUSION: The most common cause of cheilitis was irritation, frequently caused by lip licking. But, almost one third was caused by ACD. Patients with chronic eczematous cheilitis should be patch-tested to identify the materials causing ACD.
Cheilitis* ; Dermatitis, Allergic Contact ; Dermatitis, Contact ; Dermatology ; Female ; Humans ; Incheon ; Lip ; Lip Diseases ; Patch Tests* ; Toothpastes

BACKGROUND: Leprosy is an infectious disease with two polar forms, tuberculoid leprosy (TT) and lepromatous leprosy (LL), that are characterized by strong cell-mediated immunity (CMI) and CMI anergy, respectively. Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) is a family of growth factors involved in essential physiological processes, including development, differentiation, tissue repair, cell growth control and inflammation. Cellular signaling by TGF-beta family members is initiated by the assembly of specific cell surface receptors that activate transcription factors of the Smad family. Deregulation of the TGF-beta-Smad signaling pathway has been implicated in developmental disorders and several human diseases. Recently, ELISA & immunohistochemistry revealed high expression of TGF-beta isoforms in LL. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate TGF-beta-Smad signaling in various forms of leprosy. METHODS: We investigated the involvement of TGF-beta by immunohistochemical staining for Smad 2 and 3 in skin biopsies from six patients of BL and four patients of TT. RESULTS: The inflammatory cells, keratinocytes and fibroblasts in BL showed strong positivity for both Smad 2 and 3, whereas those in TT showed little positivity. CONCLUSION: The high expression of Smad 2/3 in BL could represent high expression of TGF-beta, which possibly contributes to local CMI anergy and other clinical characteristic features of leprosy.
Biopsy ; Communicable Diseases ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Fibroblasts ; Humans ; Immunity, Cellular ; Immunohistochemistry ; Inflammation ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; Keratinocytes ; Leprosy* ; Leprosy, Lepromatous ; Leprosy, Tuberculoid ; Physiological Processes ; Protein Isoforms ; Receptors, Cell Surface ; Skin ; Transcription Factors ; Transforming Growth Factor beta