7 research outputs found
Skin tumour surgery in primary care: do general practitioners need to improve their surgical skills?
Item does not contain fulltextBACKGROUND: Due to a rapid increase in the incidence of skin cancer, it seems inevitable that general practitioners (GPs) will play a larger role in skin cancer care. OBJECTIVES: To assess surgical procedures used by GPs in skin tumour management. METHODS: We performed a retrospective study of 1,898 pathology reports of skin tumours excised by GPs in 2009. RESULTS: In 22.9% no diagnosis was provided on the application form. Mostly, once-off excisions (no preceding biopsy) were performed, 7% of the excised lesions were malignant, and 35% of incisions were incomplete. Excisions in the face and neck region were incomplete in 65.4%; 22% of melanomas were biopsied or shaved. CONCLUSION: This study underlines the difficulties in skin tumour management in primary care. To stimulate adequate resource use, the number of excisions of benign lesions could be lowered, and pretreatment biopsy in non-melanoma skin cancer management should be encouraged. GPs should be aware of their limitations and consider referral of high-risk malignancies. (c) 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel
Disruption of Abcc6 in the mouse: novel insight in the pathogenesis of pseudoxanthoma elasticum.
Item does not contain fulltextPseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) is a heritable disorder of connective tissue, affecting mainly skin, eye and the cardiovascular system. PXE is characterized by dystrophic mineralization of elastic fibres. The condition is caused by loss of function mutations in ABCC6. We generated Abcc6 deficient mice (Abcc6-/-) by conventional gene targeting. As shown by light and electron microscopy Abcc6-/- mice spontaneously developed calcification of elastic fibres in blood vessel walls and in Bruch's membrane in the eye. No clear abnormalities were seen in the dermal extracellular matrix. Calcification of blood vessels was most prominent in small arteries in the cortex of the kidney, but in old mice, it occurred also in other organs and in the aorta and vena cava. Newly developed monoclonal antibodies against mouse Abcc6 localized the protein to the basolateral membranes of hepatocytes and the basal membrane in renal proximal tubules, but failed to show the protein at the pathogenic sites. Abcc6-/- mice developed a 25% reduction in plasma HDL cholesterol and an increase in plasma creatinine levels, which may be due to impaired kidney function. No changes in serum mineral balance were found. We conclude that the phenotype of the Abcc6-/- mouse shares calcification of elastic fibres with human PXE pathology, which makes this model a useful tool to further investigate the aetiology of PXE. Our data support the hypothesis that PXE is in fact a systemic disease