Naka Kumasaka

Subungual melanomas are one of the most common types of malignant melanoma among the Japanese population. Although most pigmented nail streaks are benign and remain unchanged in their color and shape for a long time, rarely are they precursor lesions of subungual melanomas i.e., a rapid growing pigmented nail streak resulting in diffuse melanosis of the nail is thought to be an early stage of subungual melanoma in situ. We found four patients with these changes: three of these patients ...

The incidence of malignant melanoma is much lower in Japanese than in Caucasians, and the commonest type of melanoma in Japanese is acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM). In contrast to the improved prognosis noted in ALM, it is now of increasing concern that there is a rise in both the frequency and mortality of nodular melanoma. During the 25 years from 1970 to 1994, we observed 190 patients with melanoma, including 62 nodular melanomas and 96 ALM, at the Department of Dermatology, Tohoku ...

Systemic measures to control recalcitrant pruritus observed in many patients with chronic renal failure receiving dialysis are generally unsatisfactory. We evaluated the efficacy of treatment of uremic pruritus with longwave ultraviolet irradiation (UVA) in conjunction with topical psoralen application (PUVA) in 13 patients with chronic renal failure and severe pruritus which was not attributed to other skin or internal disease. The patients received 1 to 12 treatments to the entire skin ...