Follow-up of skin manifestations in Yu-Cheng children

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.