A giant apocrine hidrocystoma of the trunk.

Hidrocystomas are benign cysts that typically present as translucent, bluish dermal nodules on the face and are rarely > 1 cm in size. They are classically categorized as eccrine or apocrine based on histologic features. We present a rare case of a giant apocrine hidrocystoma of the trunk, demonstrating that, although a rare variant, apocrine hidrocystomas can present both off the head and neck, and can be significantly larger in size than previously reported.

Severe drug hypersensitivity reaction in a young woman treated with doxycycline.

Doxycycline is a commonly prescribed medication for the management of acne vulgaris. Severe adverse reactions to this medication are uncommon. We describe an unusual case of a 20-year-old female who experienced a life-threatening hypersensitivity reaction, including fever, lymphadenopathy, hepatitis, nephritis and severe pneumonitis with respiratory failure following oral administration of doxycycline for facial acne.

Teledermatology in the diagnosis of melanoma.

We conducted a retrospective chart review of US Veterans in the Pacific Northwest area to compute melanoma incidence and Breslow depth at diagnosis. We compared Veterans with access to teledermatology (TD) and those without (non-TD). We identified pathology-confirmed primary melanomas in Veterans who had had at least one encounter at a VA facility during a 3-year study period. The age-adjusted melanoma incidence for all, TD and non-TD Veterans was 36, 15 and 57 per 100,000, respectively. The mean Breslow depth was significantly greater in the TD group (P = 0.03). Although a higher proportion of thin (Breslow depth ≤1 mm) TD melanomas were mitotically active, this difference was not significant. We also found that 180 (40%) of the non-TD (face-to-face) diagnosed melanomas were from Veterans living in areas where TD was available. This suggests that the higher melanoma incidence in the non-TD group was mainly due to under-utilization of TD services. The study demonstrated that the TD service was not fully utilized in the VISN20 region, although the reasons for this are not clear. Where TD was utilized it tended to diagnose more advanced melanomas with worse initial prognosis.