Patchy alopecia areata sparing gray hairs: a case series.

Alopecia areata is an unpredictable, non-scarring hair loss condition. Patchy alopecia areata sparing gray hairs is rare. Here we present 4 cases with patchy non-scarring hair loss, which attacked pigmented hairs only and spared gray hairs. It should be differentiated from vitiligo, colocalization of vitiligo and alopecia areata, and depigmented hair regrowth after alopecia areata.

Acquired latent tuberculosis infection in psoriasis patients treated with etanercept in the People's Republic of China.

BACKGROUND: TNF-α plays a key role in host defense against mycobacterial infection, and patients receiving TNF-α blocker treatment have increased susceptibility to tuberculosis disease. In the People's Republic of China, an intermediate tuberculosis-burden country, the latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) risk in patients with psoriasis who are treated with etanercept, the safest kind of TNF-α blocker, is unknown. OBJECTIVES: This study reports the LTBI risk in patients with psoriasis after etanercept treatment and aims to answer the question of how often rescreening for LTBI should be done in order to reduce active tuberculosis infection of patients and further reduce the incidence of active tuberculosis disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This retrospective review evaluated patients with moderate-to-severe chronic plaque psoriasis between 2009 and 2013. All patients were excluded tuberculosis infection and received etanercept 25 mg twice weekly, then the patients were checked for LTBI 3 months after etanercept treatment to observe the incidence of LTBI and assess the need for rescreening for LTBI every 3 months. RESULTS: We retrospectively analyzed 192 patients with psoriasis with moderate-to-severe chronic plaque whose tuberculin skin test and chest X-rays were negative and who received etanercept 25 mg twice weekly. Eighteen of them were excluded because they received less than 3 months of etanercept therapy. After treatment with etanercept, four patients were found to have LTBI. CONCLUSION: In this study, the incidence of LTBI after 3 months was four in 192 (2.1%), which is higher than the annual incidence of LTBI in the People's Republic of China (0.72%), so LTBI could be expected to occur within 3 months in psoriasis patients on etanercept. Periodic screening for LTBI in the therapy course, as well as before initiating treatment, is necessary in those patients who use a TNF-α blocker. We recommend rescreening for LTBI every 3 months.

A novel missense KIT mutation causing piebaldism in one Chinese family associated with café-au-lait macules and intertriginous freckling.

Piebaldism is a rare autosomal dominant genodermatosis, manifesting as congenital and stable depigmentation of the skin and white forelock. It has been found to be associated with mutations in the KIT or SLUG genes. We report a Chinese piebaldism family including a 28-year-old woman and her 3-year-old son with characteristics of white patches and forelock associated with numerous brown macules and patches. Genomic DNA samples of the proband and her son were extracted from their peripheral blood. One hundred unrelated healthy individuals were used as controls. All coding regions of KIT, SLUG, and NF1 genes were amplified by polymerase chain reaction using exon flanking intronic primers and Sanger sequencings were performed. DNA sequencing revealed heterozygous missense c.2431T>G mutation in exon 17 of the KIT gene in the proband and the affected son. No potentially pathogenic variant was identified in SLUG or NF1 genes. The nucleotide substitution was not found in 100 unrelated control individuals. This study reveals a novel KIT mutation in piebaldism, and it further supports that café-au-lait macules and intertriginous freckling of piebaldism are parts of pigmented anomaly in piebaldism, which does not necessarily represent coexistence of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1).