Follicular cheilitis.

Abstract

To the Editor: We read with surprise the article “Follicular Cheilitis: A Distinctive Histopathologic Finding in Actinic Prurigo,” by Roberto Herrera-Goepfert and Mario Magaña (1) and want to make the following observations: Herrera-Goepfert and Magaña report cases seen at the Hospital General “Dr. Manuel Gea González” from January 1988 to December 1992. We have previously described (2-7) identical findings as those reported in the article by Herrera-Goepfert and Magaña; it amazes us that they don't even cite us. We want to believe this is because of their lack of knowledge of the disease's state of the art and not a purposeful action in order to appear as if they were originally describing what we already did before, in the same group of patients! It is difficult to believe that they were not aware of our papers since, from 1987 to 1991, Dr. Magaña was member of the editorial committee of Dermatol Rev Mex, where some of our findings were published (2,3). He also worked as a consultant in dermatopathology for the Pathology Department of our hospital from 1986 to March 6, 1992, while Herrera-Goepfert was chairman of the same department (from 1986 to May 1, 1993, when he moved to another hospital). Some of the coauthors in our papers (3,4) are or were members of the Pathology Department by the time our studies were published and thus worked in the same department as Herrera-Goepfert and Magaña-García. Pathologists (at least in our hospital) don't take biopsy specimens but study what other departments send to them, and in our hospital the only department that takes skin and lip biopsy specimens in actinic prurigo patients is the Department of Dermatology, consequently those lip biopsies reported by them and studied at our hospital are part of our series (started in 1977) and were published earlier by us (2-7) with exactly the same findings. In some instances, it is valid to report findings of the same patient groups if the methods used in the second study are different and new knowledge is gained. Neither occurs in the paper discussed and thus can be considered as a dual publication. Although our group has been working on actinic prurigo for almost 20 years, none of our papers is acknowledged, except one (7), which is the only paper we have published with Magaña-García on this subject. He misquotes our names in this reference (Joto instead of Domínguez-Soto, Tomoka instead of Hojyo-Tomoka) but, curiously, does not misquote his own name (not García, but Magaña-García). We organized an International Workshop on Actinic Prurigo in Mexico City in 1993 where researchers in actinic prurigo presented their experience with the disease (of course, follicular cheilitis was presented there, too). Fortunately, our colleagues from Latin America, Canada, and the United States have collaborated with our group for many years and are aware of our contribution in the fields of dermatopathology and immunogenetics, and to the understanding of this fascinating disease. On the basis of the above facts, we let you and the readers of the American Journal of Dermatopathology draw their own conclusions. M. Teresa Hojyo-Tomoka, M.D.; Roberto Cortés-Franco, M.D.; Luciano Domínguez-Soto, M.D.; Elisa Vega-Memije, M.D.; Fernanda Teixeira, M.D. Department of Dermatology; Hospital General “Dr. Manuel Gea González”; Mexico City; Mexico and Magdalena Reyes, M.D. Department of Pathology; Hospital General “Dr. Manuel Gea González”; Mexico City; Mexico