Comparative dermatology

Abstracts

Os autores relatam um caso de quelóide que reporta à gravata borboleta, acessório de trajes em geral masculinos.

Crescimento; Esterno; Quelóide

ICONOGRAPHY

Comparative dermatology^*

Valdilene Loures de Souza^I; Juliana Cristina Silva Fraga^I; Aloísio Gamonal^II

^IResident at the Dermatology Service of Hospital Universitário da Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora - UFJF - Juiz de Fora (MG), Brazil

^IIPh.D. in Dermatology, UNIFESP. Chair of the Dermatology Service of Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora - UFJF - Juiz de Fora (MG), Brazil

^{Correspondence}

ABSTRACT

The authors show a case of keloid that is reminiscent of the bow-tie, a male piece of apparel.

Keywords: Growth; Sternum; Keloid

The first traces of garment pieces such as ties date back to the third century B.C. However, what really gave rise to widespread use in the world was the 30 Years War, which devastated Europe during the 17th. Century. At this time, the Sacred Roman Empire waged war against the Bohemian protestant aristocracy. The French, belonging to the latter group, had their army made up mostly of mercenaries, among whom there was a group of Croatian warriors who wore, as part of their clothes, a type of scarf around the neck, similar to what would later be ties. Influenced by the Croatians, the French soldiers also started wearing the ornament. At the end of the war, the French aristocracy started wearing it, aiming at looking like its warriors in order to be better accepted by the people. The king of England, leaving exile in France, took the new fashion to his homeland. From that time on, the tie spread throughout Europe and, with maritime expansion, conquered new continents.^1,2 However, it is in the 19th. Century, marked by ideological confrontations, that the bow-tie appears, serving, according to Honoré de Balzac, as a way to tell a man of genius from a mediocre one.¹

Figure 1 corresponds to a female patient, 17, normal birth, no history of local trauma, presenting in the sternal region, since birth, a keloid lesion which grows in proportion to the patient’s stature development. The lesion is approximately 10mm in its widest diamater and it has the likeness of a bow-tie (Figure 2). Fibers in the longer axis are oriented in parallel to the clavicle surface, and the constricted region at the center displays fibers perpendicularly vis-à-vis the long axis, like a perfect bow-tie knot.

REFERENCES

Received on July 04, 2005.

Approved by the Consultive Council and accepted for publication on September 30, 2005.

Conflict of interests: None

• 1. Lerparaver.com [Homepage on the Internet]. Lisboa: Delegação Regional do Sul e Ilhas da Associação dos Cegos e Amblíopes de Portugal, Inc.; c 2000-2005 [updated 2003 Apr; cited 2005 Jul]. Jornal de Parede nş7. Available from: http://www.lerparaver.com/jparede7.html
• ²
  Kruzlifix’s Homepage [Homepage on the Internet]. Switzerland: kruzlifix’s Association, Inc.; c 1996-2005 [updated 1998; cited 2005 Jul]. Kruzlifix’s History of the Bow Tie. Available from: http://www.staehelin.ch/bowtie/bowties.html

*

Work done at the Dermatology Service of the University Hospital, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora - UFJF - Juiz de Fora (MG), Brazil.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  12 Apr 2006
• Date of issue
  Feb 2006

History

• Received
  04 July 2005
• Accepted
  30 Sept 2005