Skins symptoms during COVID‐19 have been recently described but their relation to SARS‐CoV‐2 is unclear while results for real‐time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (rRT‐PCR) testing ...were variable. Recalcati et al. reported 14 cases of patients with skin symptoms consistent with previous described COVID‐19 lesions but all the patients were tested negative. They asked for a serology to validate the hypothesis that these lesions are related to COVID‐19.
Summary
Background
Lymphomatoid papulosis (LyP) type D (LyP D) and type E (LyP E) have recently been described in small series of cases or isolated case reports.
Aim
To further describe the clinical ...and histological features of LyP D and E based on a retrospective multicentre study.
Methods
The clinical and histopathological features of 29 patients with an initial diagnosis of LyP D or LyP E were retrospectively assessed using standardized forms.
Results
After exclusion of 5 cases, 24 patients (14 LyP D, 10 LyP E) were enrolled in the study. The median follow‐up was 2.5 years (range 1 month to 13 years). LyP D was characterized by multiple recurrent self‐regressing small papules that developed central erosion or necrosis, whereas LyP E presented as papulonodular lesions that rapidly evolved into necrotic eschar‐like lesions > 10 mm in size. Epidermal changes were more frequent in LyP D, whereas dermal infiltrates were deeper in LyP E. Anaplastic cytology was rare and the DUSP22 rearrangement was never observed. Two patients (8%) had an associated cutaneous lymphoma.
Conclusion
LyP D and E have distinct clinical findings and may be associated with other cutaneous lymphomas.
OBJECTIVE—Pseudoxanthoma elasticum is an inherited metabolic disorder resulting from ABCC6 gene mutations. It is characterized by progressive calcification and fragmentation of elastic fibers in the ...skin, retina, and the arterial wall. Despite calcium accumulation in the arteries of patients with pseudoxanthoma elasticum, functional consequences remain unknown. In the present study, we investigated arterial structure and function in Abcc6 mice, a model of the human disease.
APPROACH AND RESULTS—Arterial calcium accumulation was evaluated using alizarin red stain and atomic absorption spectrometry. Expression of genes involved in osteochondrogenic differentiation was measured by polymerase chain reaction. Elastic arterial properties were evaluated by carotid echotracking. Vascular reactivity was evaluated using wire and pressure myography and remodeling using histomorphometry. Arterial calcium accumulation was 1.5- to 2-fold higher in Abcc6 than in wild-type mice. Calcium accumulated locally leading to punctuate pattern. Old Abcc6 arteries expressed markers of both osteogenic (Runx2, osteopontin) and chondrogenic lineage (Sox9, type II collagen). Abcc6 arteries displayed slight increase in arterial stiffness and vasoconstrictor tone in vitro tended to be higher in response to phenylephrine and thromboxane A2. Pressure-induced (myogenic) tone was significantly higher in Abcc6 arteries than in wild type. Arterial blood pressure was not significantly changed in Abcc6, despite higher variability.
CONCLUSIONS—Scattered arterial calcium depositions are probably a result of osteochondrogenic transdifferentiation of vascular cells. Lower elasticity and increased myogenic tone without major changes in agonist-dependent contraction evidenced in aged Abcc6 mice suggest a reduced control of local blood flow, which in turn may alter vascular homeostasis in the long term.
•In-situ method to measure the plasma facing components emissivity.•Non-uniform emissivity measured along the divertor W-coated components.•Implication of non-uniform emissivity on heat flux ...estimation.
In this paper, a method was developed to estimate in-situ the emissivity of the W-coated graphite divertor tiles in the WEST tokamak. This method is based on the double heating method and take advantages of the divertor temperature increase after successive plasma experiments due to the inertial behavior of the plasma facing components. Photonic calculations have been used to disentangle the emitted and the reflected parts in the measured radiances from the infrared system. The uncertainty as well as the robustness of the method have been investigated thanks to the wide IR and thermocouple coverage in the WEST divertor. The results show strong variation of the emissivity along the divertor W surfaces with a factor 4 variation after the experimental campaigns including 18.3 GJ and about 21 000 s of cumulated injected energy and duration, respectively. Finally, the implication of a non-uniform emissivity on heat flux estimation from IR measurements is discussed, showing that non-uniform emissivity must be considered to obtain an accurate heat flux decay width.
Metastatic melanomas are highly aggressive and median survival is 6–9months for stage IV patients in the absence of treatment with anti-tumor activity. Dacarbazine is an alkylating agent that has ...been widely used in the treatment of metastatic melanomas and that could be still used in combination with targeted or immune therapies. Indeed, therapeutic benefits of these treatments in monotherapy are poor and one option to improve them is to combine drugs and/or to better anticipate the individual response to a defined treatment. To our best knowledge and to date, there is no test available to predict the response of a patient to dacarbazine. We show here that examination of melanoma histological sections by infrared micro-spectroscopy reveals the sensitivity of the cancer to dacarbazine. Unsupervised analysis of the FTIR spectra evidences spontaneous and significant clustering of infrared spectra into two groups that match the clinical responsiveness of the patients to dacarbazine used as a first-line treatment. A supervised model resulted in 83% of the patient status (responder/non-responder) being correctly identified. The spectra revealed a key modification in the nature and quantity of lipids in the cells of both groups.
A spontaneous and significant clustering of infrared spectra into two groups matches the clinical responsiveness of the patients to dacarbazine. Display omitted
•No tests are available to predict response of melanoma patients to dacarbazine.•Infrared imaging can predict the sensitivity of the cancer to the drug.•Application of this result can lead to a more effective and less toxic treatment of patients.
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