Reflectance confocal microscopy and histological features of depigmentation after local corticosteroid injection.

BACKGROUND: Clinically, depigmentation after local corticosteroid injection is not rare. But there are less articles about its reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) and histological features. This study aimed to define the RCM features and histopathologic findings of hypopigmentation after local corticosteroid injection and to analyze the correlations between the above two methods. METHODS: Forty cases with hypopigmentation after local corticosteroid injection were used to analyze the clinical and RCM features. Subsequently, for 20 of 40, an excision biopsy of the same imaged areas for histopathologic examination was executed. RESULTS: Our results showed that all 40 cases had round or ellipse hypopigmented macules with obscure boundary and 26 of 40 lesions' long diameter went along limbs. The RCM features and the histological findings revealed all patients had variable degrees of epidermal thinning, flattening rete ridges, reduced melanin, and no inflammatory cell infiltration. MART-1 analysis revealed the number of melanocytes was normal but with no or less melanin by Fontana-Masson staining. CONCLUSIONS: Depigmentation after local corticosteroid injection was a kind of disease with intact melanocytes, whose function was impaired. RCM features offer a high consistency with histopathologic findings. It thus constitutes a promising adjuvant tool for its diagnosis and for therapeutic follow-up.

[Expression of coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor in non-small cell lung cancer and its significance].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the mRNA and proten expression of coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CAR) in the corresponding normal lung tissue, para-neoplastic tissue and lung cancer tissue, and the correlation of CAR expression with the carcinogenesis as well as the expression difference in various clinicopathologic parameters. METHODS: The expression of CAR mRNA and protein in the samples from 32 lung cancer patients was determined by RT-PCR and Western blot, respectively. RESULTS: The expression level of CAR mRNA and protein in normal lung tissue, paraneoplastic tissue and cancer tissue were 1.000 +/- 0.012, 1.048 +/- 0.035, 1.282 +/- 0.072, and 0.902 +/- 0.038, 0.944 +/- 0.042, 1.08 +/- 0.052, respectively, with a statistical significance among the groups (P = 0.022, P = 0.007, P = 0.009, P = 0.027). There was a statistically significant positive correlation between expression of CAR mRNA and that of CAR protein (r = 0.448, P = 0.026). The expression levels of CAR were significantly different among different pathological types (P = 0.012), with a high level of CAR in all 7 bronchiolo-alveolar carcinoma (BAC, P = 0.029). However, there was no statistical significance in other clinicopathologic parameters (P > 0.05), including gender, age, smoking or not, tumor size, with or without lymph node metastasis and TNM stage. CONCLUSION: The expression of CAR mRNA and protein in cancer tissue samples are significantly higher than that in the normal and paraneoplastic samples, indicating that CAR might play a crucial role in the carcinogenesis. It may become a new potential prognostic marker for lung cancer patients.