Bank China Rural Health Study. The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent.

Background: Lifa disease (Frictional dermal melanosis over bony prominences) has been described in Iraq for the first time in 1993, as a new distinctive pigmentary skin condition that followed chronic friction with a body washing agent (lifa) during bathing. Objective: To assess this increasingly common problem where still many doctors unaware about its presence especially in other Middle East ...

The market value of crustaceans depreciates during storage due to the appearance melanosis caused by polyphenol oxidases. Sulfite derivatives are used as melanosis-inhibiting agents, but their unhealthy effects make it preferable replace them with natural preservatives. In this work, a crude enzymatic extract from whiteleg shrimp (Penaeus vannamei) was characterized and test diphenol oxidase-in...

lar to the earlier described case, suggesting an invasive postoperative ingrowth process. The X-Y karyotyping revealed that the epithelial cells were of donor origin. The technique of posterior lamellar keratoplasty is relatively new and technically difficult, with a surgeon’s learning curve. The most critical step is the preparation of the posterior lamellar disc by hand or by use of a microke...

THE naevus of Ota is characterized by benign mesodermal melanosis of the skin of the face with pigmentation of the eye and its adnexa. It is probably more familiar to the dermatologists. Pusey (1916) was the first to describe the association of scleral and facial pigmentation in a young Chinese student. Later, in Japan, Ota and Tanino (1939) reported, under the name of naevus fusco-caeruleus ma...

AIM To evaluate topical mitomycin C (MMC) chemotherapy in the treatment of conjunctival melanoma and primary acquired melanosis with atypia. METHODS In a phase I clinical trial, 10 patients with conjunctival melanoma and/or primary acquired melanosis with atypia were treated with topical MMC 0.04% four times daily. Four patients were given MMC for 28 days as a primary treatment. Six patients ...

Genetic studies of hybrids between the Mexican killifishes, Platypoecilus maculatus and Xiphophorus hellerii, have shown that when the black-spotted varieties of Platypoecilus are crossed with Xiphophorus, melanosis appears in some of the hybrid offspring. The distinguishing feature of these black-spotted varieties of Platypoecilus is the presence in the skin of a large type of black chromatoph...

A case of melanosis coli in a girl of 4 years is described. The condition is usually considered a disease of the aging bowel. In this case there was a history of constipation, and anthracene abuse.