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The authors present new cases of malignant melanoma seen at the Skin Cancer Clinic of the University Hospital in Martin in the year 2017. There have been 112 new cases of malignant melanoma, 66 in men and 46 in women, diagnosed in 2017. We have recorded a occurence of two melanomas in one person in 3 patients, two men and one women. One patient had metastatic melanoma found in lymph nodes without corresponding skin lesions. The most common tumor body localisation in both men and women was on the back (51 melanomas, 45 %). In women, the most common localisation was upper extremities (13 melanomas, 29 %), followed by lower extremities and the back at the same rate (11 melanomas, 24 %). In men, the most common localisation was on the back (40 melanomas, 60 %). Histologically, the most common type was superficial spreading malignant melanoma (50 melanomas), the second most common was non specific type of malignant melanoma (19 melanomas). The majority of cases were low risk lesions with histological Breslow thickness in the range from 0,1 mm to 1 mm (47 melanomas). High risk lesions with histological Breslow thickness more than 4 mm were the second most common type (24 melanomas).

Skin aging has become an area of increasing research interest in dermatovenerology. Changes in the skin associated with aging can be detected by high - frequency 20 MHz ultrasonography, which is a useful diagnostic technique allowing reliable imaging of cutaneous and superficial subcutaneous structures.

Nodular amelanotic melanoma has been always a great challenge in dermatology. Because of lack of melanin pigment, tumors are diagnosed usually in advanced stage. Amelanotic melanoma can mimic basal cell carcinoma. Knowledge of typical dermoscopic structures helps to establish diagnosis and to plan surgery with appropriate safety margins. In amelanotic melanoma we can see typical vessels, white streaks or milky red globules on pink-reddish background. Vessels are typically thin and polymorphous in thick amelanotic melanoma. We had a case when vessels were polymorphous but thick. It can be confusing with nodular basal cell carcinoma where vessels are typically thick and arborizing. Nodular basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of basal cell carcinoma. Dermoscopy is a valuable tool for the diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma. Typical dermoscopic structures are arborizing vessels, possible sites of ulceration and/or pigmentation. We describe a case report of patient with typical dermoscopic structures seen in nodular basal cell carcinoma.

High-frequency skin ultrasonography using Dermascan C, manufactured by Cortex Technology, is an important part of modern diagnostic procedure of various skin diseases. It has been used in dermatology since 1979, when it was first used for the measurement of cutaneous thickness. Ultrasonography is a universal, painless, low-risk and non-invasive procedure that can easily be performed and repeated. It provides real-time visual information about the processes in the skin. This technique has grown to become frequent imaging method in dermatology.

Idiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM) is a rare inflammatory breast disease mimicking carcinoma and puerperal or non-puerperal mastitis. The primary purpose of this prospectively performed case control study was to compare clinical and imaging signs of IGM with the reference group of nonspecific, non-puerperal mastitis (NM) to identify the most typical clinical and imaging signs essential for a correct differential diagnosis. The secondary purpose was to present a new approach to non-invasive treatment. Thirty-nine women with histologically proven IGM and twenty-six patients with nonspecific mastitis underwent clinical examination, breast ultrasound (US), mammography (MG) and MRI examination. The most typical signs were selected for each group and method; followed by a statistical evaluation. The effectivity of colchicine, vitamin E and ribwort plantain tincture in treatment was assessed by clinical examination and imaging. Typical clinical signs of IGM included unilateral acute onset of breast edema, redness, palpable masses, missing fever, lymphadenopathy, no response to antibiotics or surgical interventions. Ultrasound revealed: “finger-like" structures (100%), ductectasias (76.9%), abscesses (76.9%) and lymphadenopathy (15.4%), while in MRI skin and tissue edema (100%), multicentric lesions (100%), abscesses (76.9%), ring enhancement (84.6%), lymphadenopathy (15.4%) and small enhancing lymph nodes (38.5%) were observed. Among the clinical signs, fistulas, hypoechoic mass, ductectasias and diffusion weighted images (DWI) restriction were significantly more frequent in patients with IGM than in those with NM. Treatment effectivity yielded 100% with a complete response between 6-19 months, depending on the disease extent. Targeted questions together with imaging can speed up selection for proper treatment with colchicine, vitamin E and local treatment. Long lasting use of antibiotics and repeated surgical interventions should be avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A patient with primary malignant melanoma localized to the right gluteal region is described. Four years later and after intercurrent influenza, disseminated metastases of malignant melanoma to the skin occurred. After a further 6 months melanodermia developed and lasted until the death of the patient (6 months later). Autopsy revealed melanosis of the visceral organs. Histology taken from internal organs using S-100 protein and HMB-45 melanoma methods confirmed metastases of malignant melanoma to the skin, oral cavity, palatal tonsils, nasal and nasopharyngeal mucosae, lungs, myocardium and brain. The authors discuss the mechanism of melanosis—a rare sign in patients with metastasizing malignant melanoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: About 50% of melanomas have the BRAFV600E mutation. This mutation is an attractive therapeutic target. The aims of our study were to detect BRAFV600E mutations within circulating cell-free DNA in plasma ("liquid biopsy") by a droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) method, and to investigate how well the Breslow-Clark score can be predicted by ddPCR., Materials and Methods: We analyzed 113 patients with malignant melanoma. ddPCR was performed using the QX200 system (BIO-RAD ® , Hercules). All samples were tested in duplicate. Besides the results of the liquid biopsy, we have collected data on gender and age of the patients, as well as the mitotic activity of the tumor; the tumor subtype and localization, and the Breslow-Clark score. The limit of detection (LoD) was determined by the method of Tzonev. The LoD was found to be five events per well., Results: The BRAFV600E mutation was detected in 37 of 113 samples. A moderate predictive accuracy of the Breslow-Clark score can be attained with the mitotic activity and the type of melanoma as the most important predictors., Conclusion: Our results show that ddPCR is a highly sensitive method and could be used for a routine laboratory detection of the BRAFV600E mutation as well as for follow-up monitoring to determine the treatment response in patients with malignant melanomas.

Cutaneous melanoma has the worst prognosis of all skin cancers. Although emerging targeted therapies, such as B-Raf kinase inhibitor vemurafenib, improve prognosis they require an accurate and sensitive means of detecting the pathogenic BRAF V600E mutation. We compared the sensitivity of four BRAF V600E detection methods in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded melanoma biopsies from 87 consecutive melanoma patients with Breslow stage I-V disease (staging based on the depth of tumor of invasion). The methods assessed were the widely used Cobas ® 4800 system based on real-time PCR amplification, Sanger sequencing, allele-specific PCR (AS-PCR), and droplet digital PCR (ddPCR). The BRAF V600E mutation was found in 8 (9.2%), 23 (26.4%), 23 (26.4%) and 31 (35.6%) biopsies, respectively. The limit of detection (LoD) was determined by three different methods: Poisson confidence limits, calibration regression and Tzonev's method. Pair-wise agreement between the methods was as follows: Cobas vs. Sanger, P = 0.33; Cobas ® 4800 vs. AS-PCR, P = 0.33; Cobas ® 4800 vs. ddPCR, P = 0.65; Sanger vs. AS-PCR, P = 1; Sanger vs. ddPCR, P = 0.08; AS-PCR vs. ddPCR, P = 0.06. Multinomial logistic regression was used for predictive modeling of the Breslow-Clark score; ddPCR emerged as the best predictor, the other predictors were mitotic activity, type of malignant melanoma and patient's age. Our results demonstrate that ddPCR is the most sensitive method of detecting the BRAF V600E mutation., Competing Interests: None.

Reading students' faces and their body language, checking their worksheets, and keeping eye contact is a key trait of teacher competence. The new technology of mobile eye-tracking provides researchers with possibilities to explore teaching from the viewpoint of teacher gaze, but also introduces many new method questions. This study had the primary aim to investigate teachers´ attention distribution over space: the number and durations of several types of their gazes, and how their gaze depends on the factors of students´ gender, achievement, and position in the classroom. Results show that teacher gaze was distributed unevenly across both space and time. Teachers looked at the most-watched students 3-8 times more often than at the least-watched ones. Students sitting in the first row and the middle section received significantly more gaze than those sitting outside this zone. All three teachers made more single gaze visits - looking at the students but making no eye contact - than mutual gazes or student material gazes. The three teachers' gaze distribution also varied substantially from lesson to lesson. Our results are important for understanding teacher behavior in real classrooms, but also point to the relevance of appropriate method design in future classroom studies with eye-tracking., Competing Interests: The author(s) declare(s) that the contents of the article are in agreement with the ethics described in http://biblio.unibe.ch/portale/elibrary/BOP/jemr/ethics.html and that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

We present a case of an 18-year-old boy with neurofibromatosis type 1 and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with systolic anteward movement of the anterior leaflet of the mitral valve. Gradient in the left ventricular outflow was 85 mm Hg secondary to subvalvular aortic stenosis with left ventricular diastolic dysfunction. The possibility of a coincidence, or a causal relationship of these 2 conditions is mentioned.