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J Brenan

Publications and source records attributed to J Brenan.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

Audit of 114 non-neoplastic vulvar biopsies.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to show the benefits and limitations of vulvar biopsy in the setting of a multidisciplinary clinic specialising in non-neoplastic diseases of the vagina and vulva. DESIGN: One hundred and fourteen vulvar biopsies were reviewed and classified according to the classification of the International Society for the Study of Vulvar Diseases. RESULTS: The histological diagnoses were lichen sclerosus 25%, lichen simplex chronicus 35%, non-erosive inflammatory dermatoses comprising psoriasis, spongiotic dermatitis, dermatophytosis and psoriasiform dermatitis 13%, erosive vulvitis and lichen planus 9%, nonspecific inflammation 6%, miscellaneous 9% and normal 4%. CONCLUSIONS: Biopsies in cases of lichen sclerosus were useful for confirmation of clinical diagnosis and to exclude early invasive malignancy. In lichen simplex chronicus, biopsies helped exclude an underlying dermatosis requiring specific treatment. Psoriasis, spongiotic dermatitis, dermatophytosis and excoriated lichen simplex chronicus posed a common clinical differential diagnosis of the reddened vulva. The eroded vulva often proved a diagnostic problem clinically and histologically. The clinical syndrome of vestibulitis did not have a specific histological picture, and biopsies showed nonspecific inflammation, mild hyperplasia or were normal. No case of squamous cell hyperplasia was diagnosed and the place of this diagnosis in the ISSVD classification needs review.

Adolescent

Angiolymphoid hyperplasia with eosinophilia of the vulva.

Vulvar angiolymphoid hyperplasia with eosinophilia is a rare benign itchy vascular lesion that, because of its nonspecific clinical features, requires biopsy for accurate diagnosis. Surgical excision is the preferred method of treatment.

Adult

Vulvitis circumscripta plasmacellularis. A clinicopathologic entity?

Four cases of vulvitis circumscripta plasmacellularis (plasma cell vulvitis) are presented. One case was associated with cutaneous lupus erythematosus and another with a history of desquamative vaginitis. Two patients were postmenopausal, and two were premenopausal. The presenting symptoms were pruritus, tenderness, superficial dyspareunia and vulvar dysuria. The lesions were situated in the introitus in three patients and on the lateral aspect of the labium minus in the fourth and appeared as well-circumscribed, glistening, erythematous patches with a faint orange hue. Histologically, epidermal edema and inflammation, a dense upper dermal band of chronic inflammatory cells, including many plasma cells, dilated capillaries, extravasated red blood cells and hemosiderin deposition, were seen. There was a variable response to local steroid therapy, but one of the postmenopausal patients responded to local estrogen alone. The term vulvitis circumscripta plasmacellularis is useful to describe an idiopathic form of erosive vulvitis with a characteristic clinical and histologic appearance.

Adult

Halo eczema around melanocytic nevi.

Nine patients developed multiple areas of eczema surrounding centrally located pigmented nevi. There was no significant history of atopy or evidence of external contact factors to account for the reaction. The eczema did not appear to influence the central melanocytic nevi, which persisted after resolution of the inflammation. The pathogenesis of this striking phenomenon remains unclear but differs from that associated with classical halo nevi.

Adult

Hepatoerythropoietic porphyria: a new uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase defect or homozygous porphyria cutanea tarda?

Uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase levels were measured in haemolysed whole blood or fibroblasts from 3 unrelated patients with hepatoerythropoietic porphyria (HEP) and in 4 unrelated patients with familial porphyria cutanea tarda, a condition in which the enzyme is defective. In HEP patients enzyme activities were 7% of normal in erythrocytes and 8% of normal in cultured skin fibroblasts. All the features of HEP, including the characteristic accumulation of protoporphyrin in erythrocytes, are secondary to this enzyme defect. The father of 1 HEP patient was heterozygous for the same enzyme defect. He also had uroporphyrinuria and was therefore indistinguishable from patients with subclinical familial porphyria cutanea tarda. It is suggested that patients with HEP are homozygous for the gene that causes porphyria cutanea tarda.

Child