Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jun 16, 2023; 11(17): 4019-4025
Published online Jun 16, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i17.4019
Elastic fiber degradation in the development of pediatric granuloma annulare: Report of 39 cases
Dong-Yuan Zhang, Li Zhang, Qin-Yan Yang, Yu-Cheng Xie, Hong-Chao Jiang, Jia-Zheng Li, Hong Shu
Dong-Yuan Zhang, Li Zhang, Hong Shu, Department of Dermatology, Kunming Children’s Hospital, Kunming 650000, Yunnan Province, China
Qin-Yan Yang, Department of Human Resource, Kunming Children’s Hospital, Kunming 650000, Yunnan Province, China
Yu-Cheng Xie, Department of Pathology, Kunming Children’s Hospital, Kunming 650000, Yunnan Province, China
Hong-Chao Jiang, Institute of Pediatric Disease Research in Yunnan, Kunming Children’s Hospital, Kunming 650000, Yunnan Province, China
Jia-Zheng Li, Department of Emergency, The Cooperation of Chinese and Western Medicine Hospital of Yunnan Province, Kunming 650000, Yunnan Province, China
Author contributions: Zhang DY and Zhang L substantial contribution to the conception and design of the work; Zhang DY, Zhang L, Xie YC, Li JZ, and Yang QY contribution to the acquisition, analysis, interpretation of data for the work; Zhang DY contributions to article writing and revising; Jiang HC and Shu H contribution to critical manuscript revisions for project design; Yang QY agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved; Shu H contributions to final approval of the version to be published; All authors have read and approve the final manuscript; Zhang DY and Zhang L contributed equally to this work; They are substantial contribution to the conception and design of the work.
Supported by Spring City Project Famous Doctor Special.
Institutional review board statement: The study protocol was reviewed and approved by Kunming Children’s Hospital Medicine Ethics Committee, approval number 2022-03-325-K01.
Informed consent statement: Kunming Children’s Hospital Medicine Ethics Committee concluded that this study was ethical and determined that written informed consent was not required.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Data sharing statement: The data that support the findings of this study are not publicly available due to their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants but are available from the corresponding author Shu Hong upon reasonable request.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hong Shu, BMed, Doctor, Chief Doctor, Chief Physician, MHSc, Professor, Senior Consultant Dermatologist, Staff Physician, Department of Dermatology, Kunming Children’s Hospital, No. 288 Qianxing Road, Xishan District, Kunming 650000, Yunnan Province, China. etyyshuhong@sina.com
Received: February 3, 2023
Peer-review started: February 3, 2023
First decision: April 10, 2023
Revised: April 23, 2023
Accepted: May 6, 2023
Article in press: May 6, 2023
Published online: June 16, 2023
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Granuloma annulare (GA) is more common in children than in adults, and has diverse clinical manifestations, multiple subtypes, and unknown etiology and pathogenesis. However its correlation is rarely studied.

Research motivation

The main criteria for the diagnosis of GA is histopathologic biopsy, and the possible pathogenesis of GA is preliminarily discussed by analyzing the pathological characteristics of GA in children.

Research objectives

We analyzed and discussed the clinical manifestations and histopathological features of GA in children and performed elastic fiber staining and Alcian blue staining to initially investigate the role of elastic fiber degradation and mucin deposition in the pathogenesis of GA in children.

Research methods

A total of 39 cases with a pathological diagnosis of GA in Kunming Children’s Hospital between 2017 and 2022 were retrieved, and the clinical manifestations, histopathological, and special staining characteristics of the children were analyzed.

Research results

There is a correlation between the degree of elastolysis and histopathological staging, and different pathological staging may be the pathological manifestation of GA at different periods.

Research conclusions

Elastolysis is the key link of annular granuloma in children.

Research perspectives

Larger samples and prospective studies are needed to further validate our results and to confirm whether elastic fiber degradation is critical for the pathogenesis of pediatric GA.