The optokinetic deficits in albinotic rats and ferrets are caused by the loss of direction selectivity in the accessory optic system (AOS). However, the underlying mechanisms for this loss are still not clear. Here we tested the hypothesis that, in albino rats, the retinal input to the AOS lacks direction selectivity and, as a consequence, neurons in the AOS are direction non-selective. We inve...

Primary oral malignant melanoma is a rare condition, accounting for 1.3-1.4% of all melanomas, usually presenting with an aggressive clinical behavior. The present study reports the clinicopathological findings of two cases of oral malignant melanoma and discusses the epidemiology, diagnosis and current therapeutic approaches for this uncommon condition. In the first case the patient presented ...

PURPOSE Ion channels in the ciliary epithelium play critical roles in the formation of aqueous humor in the eye. The present study identified a novel, swelling-activated K(+) current in freshly dissociated porcine pigmented ciliary epithelial cells. METHODS Ciliary epithelial cells were freshly dissociated from porcine eyes. Whole-cell currents were recorded by the patch-clamp technique in pi...

Various structures have been reported for dermoscopic features of pigmented Bowen's disease (BD), which could be a mimic of various pigmented skin lesions. A 79-year-old Japanese woman presented with a 3-year history of brown-black macule on her right upper arm without symptom. Dermoscopic examination demonstrated irregular flossy streaks, irregular brown dots/globules, blue-whitish regression ...

BACKGROUND There is limited data on dermoscopic features of basal cell carcinomas (BCCs). We evaluated the presence of dermoscopic features in superficial (sBCCs), nodular (nBCCs), pigmented and non-pigmented BCCs in order to evaluate the role of dermoscopy in the diagnosis of different subtypes of BCCs. PATIENTS AND METHODS We conducted a retrospective study to evaluate the presence of dermo...

Cutaneous invasive pigmented squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is rare. There have previously been only a few case reports or small case series in the English literature [1-13]. In the largest published study there were five cases of pigmented invasive SCC in 46,791 archived cases of invasive SCC (approximately 0.01%) [2]. This compares to pigmented SCC in-situ (pigmented Bowen’s disease) in which ...

This paper deals with image processing for automatic analysis of pigmented skin lesions. A special emphasis is put on pigmented networks in epiluminescence microscopy (ELM) images. The purpose of processing images with pigmented skin lesions is the visualisation for education and training as well as for diagnosis support. We use a colour based segmentation applied to the Karhunen-Lo eve transfo...

BACKGROUND Hidrocystomas are benign tumors of apocrine or eccrine epithelium. They most commonly occur on the head and neck, especially periorbitally. Albeit rare, these adnexal tumors may present as pigmented lesions. PURPOSE To describe a patient with a pigmented eccrine hidrocystoma of his nose and to review the features of other individuals with pigmented hidrocystoma of the nasal epithel...