A case of dowling-degos disease on the vulva.

Dowling-Degos disease (DDD) is an autosomal dominant genodermatosis and this disease is a genetically determined disturbance of epidermal proliferation. It is characterized by acquired, slowly progressive pigmented lesions that primarily involve the great skin folds and flexural areas such as the axilla, neck, limb flexures, the inframammary area and the inguinal folds. The vulva is an unusual location for DDD. A 41-year-old woman presented with a 10-year history of multiple, small, reticulated and brownish macules distributed symmetrically on the bilateral external genital regions. We found no other similarly pigmented skin lesions on her body, including the flexural areas. There was no known family history of similar eruptions or pigmentary changes. The histologic examination showed irregular rete ridge elongation with a filiform or antler-like pattern and basilar hyperpigmentation on the tips. Fontana-Masson staining showed increased pigmentation of the rete ridges and the S100 protein staining did not reveal an increased number of melanocytes in the epidermis. From these findings, we diagnosed this lesion as DDD.

Cure rate, duration required for complete cure and recurrence rate of onychomycosis according to clinical factors in Korean patients.

Many factors affect the cure rate (CR), duration required for complete cure (DC) and the recurrence rate (RR) of onychomycosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the CR, DC and RR in onychomycosis according to various clinical factors. We retrospectively reviewed medical records of 637 Korean patients with onychomycosis between December 2000 and December 2006. We examined six clinical factors to evaluate the effects on the CR, DC and RR: age, sex, clinical type, treatment pattern, presence of diabetes mellitus (DM) and the extent of nail involvement. On the view of the clinical nail appearance and potassium hydroxide (KOH) preparation, we designated the CR, DC and RR. In addition, we examined the differences in the CR, DC and RR in terms of the above-mentioned clinical factors. A total of 207 eligible patients were finally analysed. The CR as a whole was 78.3%, the DC was 31.7 ± 18.4 weeks and the RR was 36.0%. There were significant differences in the CR, DC and RR according to the extent of nail involvement. Age affects the CR and DC, and DM also affects the DC and RR. We found that the extent of nail involvement, age and DM affect the CR, DC and RR of onychomycosis.

A case of the hyperkeratotic variant of porokeratosis Mibelli.

Herein, we report a case of the hyperkeratotic variant of porokeratosis Mibelli. A 58-year-old woman presented with two brownish verrucous plaques on the buttock for 20 years, and extremely hyperkeratotic verrucous nodules and brownish macules on the right foot for 1 year. Histopathological findings of the buttock were typical of porokeratosis. However, histopathological findings of the right foot were atypical for porokeratosis, including extreme hyperkeratosis and an increased number of and unusual sized cornoid lamellae.