Lupus miliaris disseminatum faciei in a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjögren's syndrome.

We herein report a rare case of lupus miliaris disseminatus faciei on the chin and neck in a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjögren's syndrome. Histopathological features showed focal aggregates of epithelioid granulomas accompanied by mononuclear cell infiltration in the upper dermis. Immunohistological examination showed enhanced expression of CD68 and CD163. Recent findings have implicated a key role of innate immunity in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus, and alteration in M1 and M2 macrophage profile has been suggested. Increased expression of CD163 in the affected skin and other organs, and elevated serum levels of soluble CD163, are reported in systemic lupus erythematosus. Our results may suggest that activated M2 macrophages participated in the induction of lupus miliaris disseminatus faciei in a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjögren's syndrome.

Two Cases of Wells Syndrome with Marked Swelling in the Hands.

Wells syndrome or eosinophilic cellulitis is an idiopathic inflammatory dermatitis characterized by a benign but recurrent evolution. It often causes edematous urticarial plaques on the extremities. Herein, we report two rare cases of Wells syndrome with marked swelling in the hands. Both cases exhibited various clinical features. Case 1 was Wells syndrome with collagen disease-like sclerotic edema in the fingers and annular erythema on the trunk. Case 2 was Wells syndrome with diffuse plate-like hardening of the forearm mimicking cellulitis, which required fasciotomy due to suspected compartment syndrome at the emergency room. Wells syndrome should be included in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with marked diffuse swelling in the hands.

A case of eosinophilic fasciitis and generalized morphea overlap.

A 60-year old man developed skin hardening and edema on his extremities. Although he had been treated with oral prednisolone at another hospital, skin stiffness relapsed during tapering of prednisolone. At the initial visit to our department, physical examination showed skin hardening of the extremities and also symmetric erythematous macules on the back. Histological examination revealed fasciitis on the forearm and morphea on the back. Eosinophilic fasciitis is occasionally associated with morphea. However, cases of concurrent eosinophilic fasciitis and generalized morphea are rare. In the present case, CD34 was differentially expressed in both lesions, suggesting eosinophilic fasciitis and morphea are separate diseases with different origin of mesenchymal cells.

Prefrontal activation during two Japanese Stroop tasks revealed with multi-channel near-infrared spectroscopy.

The Stroop task is sometimes used in psychiatric research to elicit prefrontal activity, which presumably reflects cognitive functioning. Although there are two Stroop tasks (Kana script and Kanji script) in Japan, it is unclear whether these tasks elicit the same hemoglobin changes. Moreover, it is unclear whether psychological conditions or characteristics influence hemoglobin changes in the Japanese Stroop task. The aim of this study was to clarify whether hemoglobin changes elicited by the two Japanese Stroop tasks accurately reflected cognitive functioning. Hemoglobin changes were measured with multi-channel near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in 100 healthy Japanese participants performing two Japanese Stroop tasks. The Beck-Depression Inventory (BDI), State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and Maudsley Obsessive Compulsive Inventory (MOCI) were administered to participants to identify psychological conditions or personality characteristics. Compared with the Kanji task, the Kana task produced a greater Stroop effect and a larger increase in oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb) concentration. Moreover there were no significant correlations between oxy-Hb concentration and BDI, STAI-trait, STAI-state, or MOCI scores. Therefore we found that a participant's psychological conditions or characteristics did not influence the hemodynamic changes during either task. These data suggest the Kana Stroop task is more useful than the Kanji Stroop task for NIRS studies in psychiatric research.

Association of autism tendency and hemodynamic changes in the prefrontal cortex during facial expression stimuli measured by multi-channel near-infrared spectroscopy.

AIM: The aim of this study is to examine the hemodynamic changes induced by the cognitive process of facial expression by using multi-channel near-infrared spectroscopy in healthy subjects with varying degrees of autism tendency. METHODS: Subjects were 38 volunteers, 20 men and 18 women. Autism tendency was measured by the Autism Spectrum Quotient. The hemodynamic changes in the prefrontal cortex were measured by 24-channel near-infrared spectroscopy system, while subjects were asked to judge their own emotional response to standardized pictures of eight kinds of facial expressions on a computer screen. RESULTS: There were significant negative correlations between Autism Spectrum Quotient scores and accuracy of fearful expression recognition as well as increases in the concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin in response to four kinds of emotional faces (fear, contempt, sadness and disgust). CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that the greater tendency to autism that subjects have, the more difficulty they have in recognizing a fearful expression and the less hemodynamic change in the prefrontal cortex they show in response to negative facial expressions.

Multi-channel near-infrared spectroscopy reveals reduced prefrontal activation in schizophrenia patients during performance of the kana Stroop task.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the activity of frontal lobe of patients with schizophrenia during performance of two Japanese versions of the Stroop task (kana and kanji) by measuring changes in the concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin (oxyHb) with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Fourteen schizophrenia patients and 14 age- and gender-matched healthy control subjects participated in the study after giving consent. The relative changes of concentrations of oxyHb were measured by NIRS during performance of the Stroop task. Significant Stroop effects, as measured by the number of correct responses, were observed with both the kana and the kanji versions. Analysis of NIRS data revealed that the schizophrenia patients showed reduced activation in the prefrontal cortex compared to healthy controls during performance of the kana Stroop task, and that both schizophrenia patients and healthy controls showed lack of activity in the prefrontal cortex during performance of the kanji Stroop task. The results of the present study suggest the possibility that the kana Stroop task cause a greater Stroop effect than the kanji Stroop task, and schizophrenia patients show decreased prefrontal vascular reactivity associated with the inhibition required during the performance of the kana Stroop task.

Multi-channel near-infrared spectroscopy shows reduced activation in the prefrontal cortex during facial expression processing in pervasive developmental disorder.

AIM: The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether individuals with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) show differential activation during an emotional activation task compared with age- and sex-matched controls, by measuring changes in the concentration of oxygenated (oxyHb) and deoxygenated (deoxyHb) hemoglobin, using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). METHODS: Fourteen patients with PDD and 14 age- and sex-matched healthy controls participated in the study. The relative changes of concentrations of oxyHb and deoxyHb were measured on NIRS during an implicit processing task of fearful expression using Japanese standard faces. RESULTS: PDD patients had significantly reduced oxyHb changes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) compared to healthy controls. CONCLUSION: PFC dysfunction may exist in PDD.

Simultaneous determination of seven informative Y chromosome SNPs to differentiate East Asian, European, and African populations.

Identification of the population origin of an individual is very useful for crime investigators who need to narrow down a suspect based on specimens left at a crime scene. Single nucleotide polymorphisms of the Y chromosome (Y-SNPs) are a class of markers of interest to forensic investigators because many of the markers indicate regional specificity, thus providing useful information about the geographic origin of a subject. We selected seven informative Y-SNPs (M168, M130, JST021355, M96, P126, P196, and P234) to differentiate the three major population groups (East Asian, European, and African) and used them to develop forensic application. SNP genotyping was carried out by multiplex PCR reaction and multiplex single base extension (MSBE) reaction followed by capillary electrophoresis of extension products. This method can be used to assign a haplogroup from both degraded male DNA samples and DNA samples containing a mixture of female and male DNA through PCR primers that generate small amplicons (less than about 150 bp) and are highly specific for targets on the Y chromosome. The allelic state of each marker was definitively determined from a total of 791 males from the three major population groups. As expected, samples from the three major population groups showed Y-haplogroups common in the region of provenance: Y haplogroups C, D, and O for East Asians; IJ and R1 for Europeans; and AB and E for Africans.