Ultrastructural aspects of pseudoxanthoma elasticum

We report the ultrastructural findings in a case of a 72-year-old black woman with confluent yellowish papules in the cervical region. She had no comorbidities. Ophthalmological examination, electrocardiogram, and echocardiogram were normal. Hematoxylin-eosin staining of the affected skin showed str...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Anais brasileiros de dermatología Vol. 92; no. 4; pp. 527 - 530
Main Authors:	Almeida, Jr, Hiram Larangeira de, Almeida, Mariana Geber de, Jorge, Valéria Magalhães, Abreu, Luciana Boff de
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Brazil Sociedade Brasileira de Dermatologia 01-07-2017
Subjects:	Aged Collagen - ultrastructure DERMATOLOGY Dermatopathology Dermis - ultrastructure Elastic tissue Elastic Tissue - ultrastructure Female Humans Microscopy, Electron, Scanning Microscopy, Electron, Transmission Pseudoxanthoma Elasticum - pathology Skin - pathology Spine Staining and Labeling Microscopy, electron, scanning Microscopy, electron, transmission Elastic tissue
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Summary:	We report the ultrastructural findings in a case of a 72-year-old black woman with confluent yellowish papules in the cervical region. She had no comorbidities. Ophthalmological examination, electrocardiogram, and echocardiogram were normal. Hematoxylin-eosin staining of the affected skin showed strong alterations in the mid-dermis with irregular clumps of eosinophilic material and loss of the normal parallel arrangement of collagen bundles. Orcein staining revealed that the elastic fibers lost their normal linear configuration, showing clump fragmentation, sometimes forming square structures. Transmission electron microscopy showed aberrant elastic fibers with an irregular outline and heterogenic inner structures. We also observed small elastic fibers. Collagen fibers showed a normal structure with irregular distribution. Scanning electron microscopy revealed important disorganization of collagen fibers and small stone-like deposits measuring around 5 µm associated with bigger structures ranging from 10-16 µm. Higher magnification revealed that these small stone-like structures were sometimes polyhedral-shaped or squared.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Case Study-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-4 content type line 23 ObjectType-Report-1 ObjectType-Article-3
ISSN:	0365-0596 1806-4841 1806-4841 0365-0596
DOI:	10.1590/abd1806-4841.20175972