A 54-year-old Japanese female developed granuloma annulare twice in herpes zoster scars. Soon after the second event, she developed ulcerative colitis, which was well controlled by sulfonamides and corticosteroid suppository. She had no history of diabetes mellitus. There was no recurrence of granuloma annulare by June of 1999. Granuloma annulare might have contributed to the complications of ulcerative colitis, although this had not been noticed before.

Semicircular lipoatrophy is characterized by one or more partial, horizontal, band-like depressions, usually on the anterolateral thigh or thighs. We report the case of a 47-year-old woman who presented with a 1-month history of bilateral, parallel, symmetrical depressions on the anterolateral aspects of her thighs. She had been wearing a tight girdle, and the girdle's folds matched the cutaneous bands. Ultrasound examination of the affected areas showed that the muscle tensor fasciae latae became its tendon at this level, and the muscle rectus femoris originated at the same level in the deeper layer. Although semicircular lipoatrophy has a predisposition for the anterolateral aspect of the thigh, and has often been considered to be caused by repetitive mild trauma to the site, we speculate that it is also attributed to the vulnerability of the site, as explained by the muscle structure.

No abstract

No abstract

Introduction On dermoscopy, the amount and location of melanin pigment can be assessed on the basis of its colors, ranging from black, brown to blue-gray. However, accurately recognizing a variety of melanin colors is sometimes difficult because the color of melanin pigment might change according to the character and intensity of lighting, and small melanin particles of different colors might be intermingled with each other. To resolve this issue, we developed a novel technique involving the use of surgical light illumination and saturation analysis.