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A Reddish Semitransparent Tumor in an Adolescent Girl

Educational Objective
Based on this clinical scenario and the accompanying image, understand how to arrive at a correct diagnosis.
1 Credit CME

A previously healthy 16-year-old girl presented to our department with a red tumor on her right upper arm that enlarged over 6 months. The lesion initially started as a small cutaneous nodule without obvious triggers that gradually developed and enlarged to form a red-colored tumor with a hard nodule inside. There was no history of local trauma or insect bite. Her personal, past, and family histories were unremarkable.

On physical examination, there was a 6 × 6-cm protuberant, thick-walled, and well-defined red bullalike tumor on the right upper arm, which extended 1 to 3 cm from the epidermal surface (Figure, A). Inside the tumor, a nontender, firm-to-hard nodule was palpated. There was no regional lymphadenopathy, and results of the rest of the physical and systemic examinations were normal. Laboratory examinations of hematologic, biochemical, and urinalysis tests were normal. The tumor was excised completely under local anesthesia, and part of the tissue was sent for pathological examination.

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A previously healthy 16-year-old girl presented to our department with a red tumor on her right upper arm that enlarged over 6 months. The lesion initially started as a small cutaneous nodule without obvious triggers that gradually developed and enlarged to form a red-colored tumor with a hard nodule inside. There was no history of local trauma or insect bite. Her personal, past, and family histories were unremarkable.

On physical examination, there was a 6 × 6-cm protuberant, thick-walled, and well-defined red bullalike tumor on the right upper arm, which extended 1 to 3 cm from the epidermal surface (Figure, A). Inside the tumor, a nontender, firm-to-hard nodule was palpated. There was no regional lymphadenopathy, and results of the rest of the physical and systemic examinations were normal. Laboratory examinations of hematologic, biochemical, and urinalysis tests were normal. The tumor was excised completely under local anesthesia, and part of the tissue was sent for pathological examination.

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Article Information

Published Online: August 9, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2023.2241

Correction: This article was corrected on September 20, 2023, to fix the labels in panels C and D of the Figure.

Corresponding Author: Jiu-Hong Li, MD, PhD, Department of Dermatology, The First Hospital of China Medical University, 155N Nanjing St, Shenyang 110001, PR China (pfkl2011@126.com).

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.

Additional Contributions: We thank Song Zheng, MD, PhD, of The First Hospital of China Medical University for his assistance in pathology. He was not compensated. We also thank the patient’s mother for granting permission to publish this information.

References
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AMA CME Accreditation Information

Credit Designation Statement: The American Medical Association designates this Journal-based CME activity activity for a maximum of 1.00  AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Successful completion of this CME activity, which includes participation in the evaluation component, enables the participant to earn up to:

  • 1.00 Medical Knowledge MOC points in the American Board of Internal Medicine's (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program;;
  • 1.00 Self-Assessment points in the American Board of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery’s (ABOHNS) Continuing Certification program;
  • 1.00 MOC points in the American Board of Pediatrics’ (ABP) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program;
  • 1.00 Lifelong Learning points in the American Board of Pathology’s (ABPath) Continuing Certification program; and
  • 1.00 credit toward the CME of the American Board of Surgery’s Continuous Certification program

It is the CME activity provider's responsibility to submit participant completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting MOC credit.

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