Search

The article describes the case of a 68-year-old woman with a history of breast cancer treated 26 years ago presented several lesions on the upper back that had appeared six months before. Topics discussed include the diagnosis of cutaneous metastases (CM) that clinically and dermatoscopically simulated multiple dermatofibromas (DFs). Also mentioned are the present case demonstrating that CM could simulate DFs as well as a recommendation that a skin biopsy be undertaken in all doubtful cases.

In our case, the teledermatology referral is used as a register for the patient appointment and treatment by the Dermatology Department when needed, and not only for a diagnosis confirmation. The commitment of the professional involved and the full integration of teledermatology in the current health-care procedures promoted the increased use of the teledermatology system during these 12 years. The ageing of the rural Andalusian population and an elevated occupational exposure to the sun makes skin cancer a common disease, which may need early specialised attention.1 Our region includes isolated small villages that are about 50 km away from the reference hospital accessible only by mountain roads. Each teleconsultation contained a suspected diagnosis and a four-option action plan (face-to-face evaluation by the Dermatology Department, received treatment in the primary care, required no treatment or scheduled for a new teleconsultation). [Extracted from the article]

This research-on-research study describes efforts to develop non-Cochrane systematic reviews (SRs) by analyzing demographical and time-course collaborations between international institutions using protocols registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) or published in scientific journals. We have published an a priori protocol to develop this study. Protocols published in scientific journals were searched using the MEDLINE and Embase databases; the query terms “Systematic review” [Title] AND “protocol” [Title] were searched from February 2011 to December 2017. Protocols registered at PROSPERO during the same period were obtained by web scraping all non-Cochrane records with a Python script. After excluding protocols that had a fulfillment or duplication rate of less than 90%, they were classified as published “only in PROSPERO”, “only in journals”, or in “journals and PROSPERO”. Results of data and metadata extraction using text mining processes were curated by two reviewers. These Datasets and R scripts are freely available to facilitate reproducibility. We obtained 20,814 protocols of non-Cochrane SRs. While “unique protocols” by reviewers’ institutions from 60 countries were the most frequent, a median of 6 (2-150) institutions from 130 different countries were involved in the preparation of “collaborative protocols”. The highest Ranked countries involved in overall protocol production were the UK, the U.S., Australia, Brazil, China, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. Most protocols were registered only in PROSPERO. However, the number of protocols published in scientific journals (924) or in both PROSPERO and journals (807) has increased over the last three years. Syst Rev and BMJ Open published more than half of the total protocols. While the more productive countries were involved in “unique” and “collaborative protocols”, less productive countries only participated in “collaborative protocols” that were mainly published in PROSPERO. Our results suggest that, although most countries were involved in solitary production of protocols for non-Cochrane SRs during the study period, it would be useful to develop new strategies to promote international collaborations, especially with less productive countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers are increasingly using on line social networks to promote their work. Some authors have suggested that measuring social media activity can predict the impact of a primary study (i.e., whether or not an article will be highly cited). However, the influence of variables such as scientific quality, research disclosures, and journal characteristics on systematic reviews and meta-analyses has not yet been assessed. The present study aims to describe the effect of complex interactions between bibliometric factors and social media activity on the impact of systematic reviews and meta-analyses about psoriasis (PROSPERO 2016: CRD42016053181). Methodological quality was assessed using the Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) tool. Altmetrics, which consider Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ mention counts as well as Mendeley and SCOPUS readers, and corresponding article citation counts from Google Scholar were obtained for each article. Metadata and journal-related bibliometric indices were also obtained. One-hundred and sixty-four reviews with available altmetrics information were included in the final multifactorial analysis, which showed that social media and impact factor have less effect than Mendeley and SCOPUS readers on the number of cites that appear in Google Scholar. Although a journal’s impact factor predicted the number of tweets (OR, 1.202; 95% CI, 1.087–1.049), the years of publication and the number of Mendeley readers predicted the number of citations in Google Scholar (OR, 1.033; 95% CI, 1.018–1.329). Finally, methodological quality was related neither with bibliometric influence nor social media activity for systematic reviews. In conclusion, there seems to be a lack of connectivity between scientific quality, social media activity, and article usage, thus predicting scientific success based on these variables may be inappropriate in the particular case of systematic reviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Article summaries' information and structure may influence researchers/clinicians' decisions to conduct deeper full-text analyses. Specifically, abstracts of systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses (MA) should provide structured summaries for quick assessment. This study explored a method for determining the methodological quality and bias risk of full-text reviews using abstract information alone.Methods: Systematic literature searches for SRs and/or MA about psoriasis were undertaken on MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane database. For each review, quality, abstract-reporting completeness, full-text methodological quality, and bias risk were evaluated using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses for abstracts (PRISMA-A), Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR), and ROBIS tools, respectively. Article-, author-, and journal-derived metadata were systematically extracted from eligible studies using a piloted template, and explanatory variables concerning abstract-reporting quality were assessed using univariate and multivariate-regression models. Two classification models concerning SRs' methodological quality and bias risk were developed based on per-item and total PRISMA-A scores and decision-tree algorithms. This work was supported, in part, by project ICI1400136 (JR). No funding was received from any pharmaceutical company.Results: This study analysed 139 SRs on psoriasis interventions. On average, they featured 56.7% of PRISMA-A items. The mean total PRISMA-A score was significantly higher for high-methodological-quality SRs than for moderate- and low-methodological-quality reviews. SRs with low-bias risk showed higher total PRISMA-A values than reviews with high-bias risk. In the final model, only 'authors per review > 6' (OR: 1.098; 95%CI: 1.012-1.194), 'academic source of funding' (OR: 3.630; 95%CI: 1.788-7.542), and 'PRISMA-endorsed journal' (OR: 4.370; 95%CI: 1.785-10.98) predicted PRISMA-A variability. Reviews with a total PRISMA-A score < 6, lacking identification as SR or MA in the title, and lacking explanation concerning bias risk assessment methods were classified as low-methodological quality. Abstracts with a total PRISMA-A score ≥ 9, including main outcomes results and explanation bias risk assessment method were classified as having low-bias risk.Conclusions: The methodological quality and bias risk of SRs may be determined by abstract's quality and completeness analyses. Our proposal aimed to facilitate synthesis of evidence evaluation by clinical professionals lacking methodological skills. External validation is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several case studies are presented on cutaneous leishmaniasis, which is caused by genus Leishmania and the diagnosis of the same using amphotericin B medication. It mentions case study of a 56-year-old man suffering with nodule with central crusting on his upper eyelid and a 2-year-old female child suffering from circumscribed nodules with central ulceration on her cheek, both of which were analyzed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and diagnosed using amphotericin B medication.

A letter to the editor is presented which presents case studies regarding the efficacy of timolol gel for the treatment of classic Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) in old age.

The article discusses an atypical and erythema elevatum diutinum (EED), acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, is presented here. Topics include denuded and crusty red‑brown plaques were found on the extensor surfaces of forearms, arms, and legs; Histopathological analysis of three of the plaques demonstrated an extensive neutrophilic vasculitis; and the possibility of dermatitis herpetiformis was discarded considering the histopathology, the negativity of the direct immunofluorescent.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article regarding eslicarbazepine induced toxic epidermal necrolysis in the previous issue.

A quiz concerning the diagnosis of a newborn female patient who was presented at birth with a painless bulky mass on the vertex and found with solitary myofibroma lesions on the scalp is presented.