Disseminated and recurrent infundibular folliculitis (D.R.I.F.): Report of a case successfully treated with isotretinoin

Disseminated and recurrent infundibular folliculitis, henceforth referred to as D.R.I.F., is a very rare, puritic, follicular, benign disease of unknown etiology seen mostly in black males. It is often self-limited and usually unresponsive to local or systemic treatment. How- ever, vitamin A, either alone or combined with vitamin E, is occasionally effective. We report a case of a patient with D.R.I.F. treated successfully with isotretinoin

An unusual panniculitis-appearing in the winter with good response to tetracycline

Cold panniculitis is a form of physical panniculitis due to exposure of skin to severe cold. It usually appears on the cheeks of infants and children. It has also been reported on the thighs and buttocks of young females. Its clinical manifestations include red, cold, indurated plaques or nodules which appear one to three days after exposure to low temperatures and resolve spontaneously within several weeks without scarring. The histopathological picture shows a perivascular infiltrate of lymphoid and histiocytic cells at the dermal-subcutaneous junction in the early phase of the reaction (1). After 48 to 72 hours, a well developed panniculitis appears. We report an unusual case of an adult female patient with recurrent panniculitis on her legs appearing in the winter but without any preceding repeated or prolonged exposure to cold. She responded dramatically to oral tetracycline. This drug was successful as a prophylactic agent as well

Cecum malakoplakia - A tumor-like lesion with coexistent adenocarcinoma

We report the case of a 75-year-old Caucasian male who presented with acute abdomen and fecal leakage from his old appendectomy scar and required exploratory laparotomy. A large cecal mass was found and a right colectomy was performed. At pathology, the neoplastic mass was identified as malakoplakia with a small area corresponding to a moderately differentiated colonic adenocarcinoma. Occurrence of malakoplakia in the cecum, associated with adenocarcinoma, is extremely rare if we take into account the limited number of the reported cases of its coexistence with colonic cancer; our case is the second report of such an entity in the cecum. The unusual presence of fistula to the appendectomy scar may be related to the infiltrative nature of the histiocytes constituting this process. Immunochemical studies can assist in the histopathologic differentiation of malakoplakia from other entities that might represent with this tumor-like configuration

Expression patterns of beta-catenin in in situ and invasive breast cancer

Background: beta -Catenin plays a central role in the E-cadherin/catenin cell-cell adhesion complex and is possibly involved in cellular signalling pathways. In this study, we evaluated the expression patterns of this molecule in in situ and invasive breast cancer. Methods: The expression of beta -catenin was evaluated in 121 breast cancer specimens by immunohistochemistry. Its relationship to clinicopathological features was also investigated. Results: Altered beta -catenin expression was found in 68% of tumours. Lobular carcinomas showed abnormal beta -catenin expression more frequently (77%) than ductal carcinomas (64%) with 46% of lobular cases showing complete absence of beta -catenin immunoreactivity. Cytoplasmic beta -catenin localization was seen only in ductal carcinomas. Aberrant beta -catenin expression was observed in 54% of ductal carcinomas in situ with highly concordant. beta -catenin expression patterns in the nearby in situ and invasive components. Conclusions: Quantitative and qualitative changes in beta -catenin expression occur in a considerable proportion of in situ and invasive ductal carcinomas and are more prominent in invasive lobular carcinomas. (C) 2001 Harcourt Publishers Ltd