title: Follow-up of skin manifestations in Yu-Cheng children.
abstract: We report an 11-year follow-up study on the dermatological manifestations of Yu-Cheng children born to mothers who were poisoned by polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-contaminated cooking oil between 1977 and 1979. Eighty-eight children born to these mothers, and 86 matched controls, were examined by one dermatologist. Chloracne scars were found in one patient, and there were nail abnormalities in about one-third of the exposed patients. Transverse grooves, irregular depressions, and koilonychia/nail flattening were significantly more frequent than in the control group, based on Fischer's exact test. This study indicates that in Yu-Cheng children the nail changes are the most persistent abnormality after PCB intoxication, and their occurrence may indicate developmental retardation of the fetal nail matrix. Such a finding might also suggest that PCBs remaining in the mother could exert an effect on nail growth in children born several years after the intoxication event.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, National Cheng-Kung University Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: C P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Mak
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Hsu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005148:Facial Dermatoses / Q000139:chemically induced; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005506:Food Contamination; D006801:Humans; D009260:Nail Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls / Q000506:poisoning*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced*; D013624:Taiwan
chemical_list: D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls