I applaud Qin et al. for their publication, “Photodynamic therapy of port wine stains – a report of 238 cases”1. Such extensive experience with photodynamic therapy (PDT) for port wine stains (PWS) is impressive and I believe, unequaled in the Western world. In the United States and Europe, pulsed lasers and light sources, especially the pulsed dye laser (PDL; wavelengths = 585 or 595 nm) are t...

BACKGROUND Port-wine stains (PWS) are capillary malformations, typically located in the dermis of the head and neck, affecting 0.3% of the population. Current theories suggest that port-wine stains are caused by somatic mutations that disrupt vascular development. OBJECTIVES Understanding PWS genetic determinants could provide insight into new treatments. METHODS Our study used a custom nex...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Cryogen spray cooling (CSC) is used to minimize the risk of epidermal damage during laser treatment of port wine stain (PWS) birthmarks. Unfortunately, CSC may not provide the necessary protection for patients with high concentrations of epidermal melanin. The objectives of this study are to: (1) provide a definition of cooling efficiency (eta) based on the amount of h...

Phakomatosis Pigmentovascularis (PPV) is a rare cutaneous congenital malformation syndrome, defined as simultaneous occurrence of congenital cutaneous vascular and pigmentary anomalies. As most of the reported cases are from Far East countries, especially Japan, we reported a case of PPV type IIa in an Iranian patient. This case was unusual because of the coexistence of unilateral extensive por...

© 2015 The Authors. doi: 10.2340/00015555-2100 Journal Compilation © 2015 Acta Dermato-Venereologica. ISSN 0001-5555 Localized scleroderma (LS) in childhood is a relatively rare fibrosing disorder of the skin and underlying tissues. Early subtle skin changes include hyperpigmented, hypopigmented, erythematous, or purplish patches. In particular, En coup de sabre (ECDS), a linear type of LS loca...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to improve port wine stain (PWS) therapeutic outcome in response to laser therapy. Our specific aim was to determine whether the combined use of pulsed dye laser (PDL) therapy and topical Imiquimod versus PDL alone can improve PWS therapeutic outcome. STUDY DESIGN/MATERIALS AND METHODS This pilot study involved a retrospective review of...

BACKGROUND This study was performed to assess the photothermal response of highly focused laser energy using infrared thermal imaging instrument to detect and assess the actual temperature distribution during flash lamp pumped pulsed dye laser (FLPPDL) treatment for port wine stain (PWS) patients and avoiding its complications. METHODS A retrospective review of 40 patients with PWS birthmark ...

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE During laser therapy of port wine stain (PWS) birthmarks in human skin, measurement of the epidermal temperature rise (DeltaT(epi)) is important to determine the maximal permissible light dose. In order to measure DeltaT(epi) on a specific PWS skin site, we developed an AC-coupled hand-held pulsed photothermal radiometry (PPTR) system, which overcomes the in vivo measurement ...

The diffuse reflectance spectrum of human skin in the visible region (400-800 nm) contains information on the concentrations of chromophores such as melanin and haemoglobin. This information may be extracted by fitting the reflectance spectrum with an optical diffusion based analytical expression applied to a layered skin model. With the use of the analytical expression, it is assumed that ligh...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Higher laser fluences than currently used in therapy (5-10 J/cm(2)) are expected to result in more effective treatment of port wine stain (PWS) birthmarks. However, higher incident fluences increase the risk of epidermal damage caused by absorption of light by melanin. Cryogen spray cooling offers an effective method to reduce epidermal injury during laser irradiation. ...