Content - Volume 62, Issue 4

In an attempt to induce acantholysis in cultivated normal human epidermis, porcine pancreatic elastase was used. After 30 minutes, the intercellular contact layers of desmosomes appeared discontinuous. Following the disappearance of the intercellular filamentous structures, desmosomes ruptured into two, and in 3 hours, typical acantholysis was observed. After 15 minutes, prior to the desmosomal ch ...

Trichophyton mentagrophytes produces three enzyme fractions of molecular weight 65,000, 92,000 and 18,000, respectively. Normal human skin was cultivated and the specimens were subjected to electron microscopy. Enzyme fraction I showed the capacity to induce epidermal acantholysis and dermo-epidermal separation, while the other two fractions showed no proteolytic nor keratinolytic action in cultiv ...

Sixteen patients with recently acquired (= nonchronic) dermatophytosis were studied clinically and immunologically before, during and after treatment for 6 months. The methods applied were lymphocyte transformation in vitro (LTT) and intra-dermal test (IDT). Phytohaemagglutinin, pokeweed mitogen, purified protein derivate (PPD) and water-soluble extracts of Trichophyton (T) rubrum, T. mentagrophyt ...

No abstract available.

Clinical and morphologic studies were made of 20 cases of guttate hypomelanosis. The sharply demarcated hypopigmented macules were present on both covered and exposed sites, excluding sunlight exposure as a cause. Skin surface replicas and biopsies showed no evidence of post-traumatic or post-inflammatory scarring. The stratum corneum had fewer cell layers, but no abnormalities of keratinization w ...

Deer ked (Lipoptena cervi L.), a haematophagous louse fly of deer, also attacks man and can cause persistent pruritic papules. Nineteen patients with this conditions were examined. They suffered attacks while carrying out their work, or merely walking, in forested areas. The bite papules appeared mostly on the head and back. They were very itchy and resistant to treatment and persisted from 2 week ...

No abstract available.

Twenty-six patients with long-standing, recurrent polymorphous light eruptions were treated with psoralen photochemotherapy. Thirteen patients received oral methoxsalen, while 13 were photosensitized by trioxsalen baths. After an average of 20 PUVA exposures, a good or excellent therapeutic result was achieved in 12 of the orally treated and 10 of the topically treated patients. In most of the cas ...

No abstract available.

Circulating immune complexes (CIC) were detected in one of 11 patients with primary syphilis and in 5 of 12 patients with secondary syphilis. The level of CIC was significantly increased in patients with secondary syphilis. Four weeks later a significant decline in CIC was found. No relationship was demonstrated between CIC and affection of the skin, lymph nodes, or kidneys. An increased albumin e ...

A 38-year-old male with extensive psoriasis received a linear experimental abrasion. Immediate pressure was applied for 24 hours to the central portion of the traumatized site. During a psoriatic relapse 5 weeks later, Koebnerization occurred in the abraded areas but spared the site where pressure had been previously applied. The mechanism is not known but may be due to a local suppressive effect ...

No abstract available.

No abstract available.

Previous immunofluorescence studies on pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) proved negative. Biopsies from the ulcer edge of 8 patients with PG were examined by immunofluorescence microscopy. Deposits of complement C3 were seen in the vessel walls of all samples, IgM in three and IgA in one. Granular deposits of C3 were seen at the dermal--epidermal junction in 2 patients. Biopsies from clinically normal ski ...

145 of 1116 patients patch tested with the standard series of the International Contact Dermatitis Research Group, including the recently introduced perfume mixture, had positive patch test reactions to at least one of the traditional screening agents for fragrance allergy or to the perfume mixture. In 96 of 145 patients the positive patch tests could be explained as being related to fragrance all ...

Four patients suffering from protracted dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) developed lymphomas while undergoing gluten-free diet treatment. This had lasted between 6 months and 4 years. The first patient died of histiocytic lymphoma involving mesenterial lymph nodes, liver, spleen and blood marrow. The second patient died of histiocytic lymphoma disseminated in the ileum, colon, stomach and mesenterium ...

No abstract available.

No abstract available.

No abstract available.

A typical case of balanitis circumscripta plasmacellularis is described in a 74-year-old man. Electron microscopy revealed a dense infiltrate composed mainly of plasma cells and macrophages; the former showed considerable rough endoplasmic reticulum and phagolysosomes, while the latter contained variable amounts of sideromes. A few mast cells, eosinophils and extravasated erythrocytes were also pr ...

No abstract available.

Thirty-six psoriatic patients resistant to or intolerant to PUVA, methotrexate and/or etretinate were treated with razoxane (ICRF 159) and EDTA derivative with antimitotic effects. The drug is highly effective in cutaneous and arthropathic psoriasis. Razoxane is well tolerated and appears to be free of hepatotoxicity. Besides some nausea and lethargy, 60% of the patients showed neutropenia, which ...

The distribution of fibronectin in psoriatic skin was studied in 6 patients during treatment with oral etretinate using indirect immunofluorescence technique. In untreated lesions fibronectin was clearly visualized in the dermo-epidermal junction (DEJ) and in the walls of papillary capillaries, and showed a reticular or fibrillar pattern in the dermis. In the horny layer there was some fluorescenc ...

Etretinate 0.5 mg/kg body weight combined with 0.1% triamcinolone acetonide and 5% salicylic acid in an O/W cream gave more than 70% improvement in 62% of 75 patients. Of this satisfactorily improved group, at least 41% were still in the same condition after 3 years on a maintenance dose of, on average, 0.3 mg/kg body weight etretinate daily and 20 g weekly of a relatively strong corticosteroid cr ...

A case of onychotillomania in a 70-year-old woman is presented. The disease had persisted for 51/2 years. All her fingernails were plucked away. The patient had a fixed hypochondrial delusion of nail disease. After treatment with pimozide (Orap) for 7 months the nails were normal.

No abstract available.

No abstract available.