The Tanzanian XXXX albino skin. Natural history.

@entity1 @entity5 @entity1184 @entity1489 @entity957 @entity189 @entity9284 @entity194 @entity320
Three hundred fifty albinos in the city of Dar-es-Salaam have been registered at the @entity5 Centre. Their skin changes were followed for at least 2 years. Chronic skin damage was evident in all albinos by the first year of life; by 20 years, the skin of every subject demonstrated subclinical malignant change, and some had clinical @entity189 . Untreated, the @entity5 become intractable and disseminate, usually causing death in the third or fourth decade of life. Four clinical stages could be identified, each one associated with distinct pathologic changes: Stage 1, erythema; Stage 2, epidermal @entity194 with dermal @entity1184 ; Stage 3, @entity9284 ; and Stage 4, clinical @entity189 (under 3 cm). It was found that clinical Stage 2 only occurs in those skin areas that show evidence of previous Stage 1 change. Similarly, Stage 3 occurs only in areas that have gone through Stages 1 and 2. Stage 4 @entity5 were only found in those areas that had gone through all of the three prior stages. During the 2-year period of this study, 104 @entity1489 , both early and advanced, were recorded at the albino skin clinic. Thirty-three of the 104 @entity5 were advanced (over 4 cm in diameter). The median age of the latter group was 31.0 years. Whereas there was no sex bias in the distribution of clinical @entity5 , 28 of the 33 advanced @entity5 were in @entity1 . Histologically, the great majority of the advanced @entity5 were @entity957 : 29 of 33. There was one @entity320 and three basal cell @entity5 . The predominant site of advanced @entity5 in the study group was the head and neck region (30 @entity1 ); the other three occurred on the trunk, which is generally covered by clothes.
