BACKGROUND The epidermal nevus syndromes include different diseases that have the common feature of mosaicism. One of these has been recently identified and named phacomatosis pigmentokeratotica, in analogy to phacomatosis pigmentovascularis. It is characterized by an organoid nevus with sebaceous differentiation, a speckled-lentiginous nevus, and other associated anomalies. It has been hypothe...

Acral skin is the most prevalent site of malignant melanoma in non-Caucasian populations. On acral skin, other various kinds of pigmented lesions are also detected. Particularly, melanocytic nevus is commonly seen on acral volar skin; approximately 10% of Japanese have a nevus on their soles. Prognosis of acral melanoma is still generally poor because of delayed detection in the advanced stages...

Mutations in PATCHED (PTC), the human homolog of the Drosophila patched gene, have been identified in most exons of the gene in patients with the basal cell nevus syndrome and in sporadic basal cell carcinomas. We have screened the 23 PTC exons for mutations using single strand conformation polymorphism analysis of DNA from 86 basal cell nevus syndrome probands, 26 sporadic basal cell carcinoma...

The nevus of Ota also known as "congenital melanosis bulbi" and "oculodermal melanocytosis" is a blue-gray hyperpigmentation that occurs on the face and eyes. The sclera is involved in two-thirds of cases (causing an increased risk of glaucoma). Women are nearly five times more likely to be affected than men. It is rare among Caucasian people. The nevus of Ota is congenital or acquired. Most ca...

Nevus sebaceus can give rise to multiple neoplasms, some of which have the potential to become malignant. We describe the occurrence of a previously unreported combination of a cutaneous horn proliferating from a trichilemmoma overlying a multilocular pilar cyst and nevus sebaceus. An elderly woman with a several years’ history of multiple scalp subcutaneous nodules and an enlarging cutaneous h...

Oculodermal melanocytosis, also known as Nevus of Ota, is a hamartomatous melanocytic nevus of dermal melanocytes. It presents as a bluish grey patch on the face, which may be congenital or acquired involving the area of distribution of the ophthalmic and maxillary branches of the trigeminal nerve. The nevus can be unilateral or bilateral, and, in addition to skin, it may involve ocular and ora...

Vitiligo, an autoimmune disorder, is known to co-localize with other immunological disorders like lichen planus and psoriasis. However, there are no reports regarding the co-localization of an autoimmune disorder (vitiligo) and a developmental disorder (verrucous epidermal nevus). We hereby present a 10-month-old infant who was visited for white patches on the right buttock and adjoining antero...

The association of melanoma with a preexisting melanocytic nevus varies considerably between series, depending on whether the association is based on histological signs (4%-72%) or a clinically evident lesion (42%-85%). Histological association with a nevus correlates with favorable prognostic factors, whereas a clinical association correlates with unfavorable factors. In this review, we discus...

Linear epidermal nevus is an uncommon diagnosis of benign lesions of the oral cavity. It is characterized by a congenital malformation arising from the ectoderm cells, which are arranged according to a typical linear configuration known as Blaschko's lines. We report a case of linear epidermal nevus of oral cavity in a 51-year-old lady or woman. The linear epidermal nevus of the oral cavity, al...

A 2-year-old boy presents with a 4 x 3-cm, darkly pigmented nevus on his back. His mother states that this lesion has been present since birth. Both parents noticed that the nevus has become slightly larger but deny any other changes in its appearance. The boy is otherwise healthy. He has no allergies and does not take any medication. There is no family history of skin disease or cutaneous mali...