Serological evidence of Rickettsia parkeri as the etiological agent of rickettsiosis in Uruguay.

We report three new rickettsiosis human cases in Uruguay. The three clinical cases presented clinical manifestations similar to previous reported cases of Rickettsia parkeri in the United States; that is mild fever (< 40 degrees C), malaise, headache, rash, inoculation eschar at the tick bite site, regional lymphadenopathy, and no lethality. Serological antibody-absorption tests with purified antigens of R.

Importance of the direct fresh examination in the diagnosis of cutaneous sporotrichosis.

Background: To date the direct fresh examination has not been considered, except by a few authors, as a valid laboratory procedure for the diagnosis of cutaneous sporotrichosis.

Methods: Forty-two patients with cutaneous sporotrichosis (36 lymphangitic and six fixed) were studied. Pus was obtained through digital compression of opened lesions followed by collection with a spatula and examination of the material between the slide and the coverslip.

Mycotic bovine nasal granuloma.

A case of mycotic bovine nasal granuloma in a 10 year-old Jersey cow, produced by Drechslera halodes is presented. Histopathological sections showed abundant hyaline and pigmented extra and intracellular fungal structures together with a polymorphic cellular granuloma formed by neutrophils, lymphocytes, plasmocytes, histiocytes and giant cells of the Langhans type. It is the first case of mycotic bovine nasal granuloma recognized in Uruguay although this disease seems to be frequent according to the opinion of veterinarian specialists.

The importance of microscopic examination in the management of desquamative diseases of the scalp.

After determining the usual malassezic biota of the scalp in adult, normal persons, 259 patients with different desquamative diseases were studied by a simple adhesive tape technique. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the utility of this technique to improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients. Most patients with seborrhoeic dermatitis and sebopsoriasis demonstrated large numbers of Malassezia spp.

[Human ectoparasitoses: current status in Uruguay].

The present status of human ectoparasitoses in Uruguay is analyzed with the main purpose of performing in the future, comparative studies in the region. After classifying ectoparasites in temporary and permanent, comments are made on particular clinical and epidemiological aspects of some of them. For remarking: the high prevalence of pediculosis capitis and scabies; the frequent observation of cutaneous myiasis by Dermatobia hominis with a very interesting modification of the geographical national distribution of the fly and the presence of an endemic area of creeping eruption by Ancylostoma braziliense and A.

Treatment of human scabies with oral ivermectin.

Thirty-eight patients with scabies (21 males and 17 females) received oral ivermectin in two doses of 200 microg/kg at 7 days interval. Excellent results were achieved in 29 cases (76.34%), improvement in 6 (15.

Cutaneous botryomycosis. Report of the two first Uruguayan cases.

The first two Uruguayan cases of botryomycosis were diagnosed in white adult male patients with cutaneous lesions. Staphylococcus aureus was the etiologic agent in both cases. In one of them, however, Pseudomonas aeruginosa was also identified during relapse.

Hyperthermic treatment of sporotrichosis: experimental use of infrared and far infrared rays.

We used pocket warmers and infrared and far infrared rays to treat 14 cases of sporotrichosis, 7 in children and 7 in adults. There were 9 cases of the fixed cutaneous type and 5 of the lymphocutaneous type; 6 were located on the face and 8 on the limbs. Four cases were treated with pocket warmers, 5 with infrared rays, and 5 with far infrared rays.

Treatment of human cutaneous sporotrichosis with itraconazole.

Eighteen adult white male patients with cutaneous sporotrichosis were treated with itraconazole following different daily dose schemes. Cure was obtained in all cases after periods of 15-75 days (median 44 days) with total doses between 3.1 and 14.

[Lymphatic cutaneous rickettsiosis caused by Rickettsia conorii in Uruguay].

Three autochthonous cases of cutaneous-ganglionar rickettsiosis transmitted by dogs ticks (Amblyomma maculatum in one of them) are reported. Two of the three cases were undoubtely produced by Rickettsia conorii according to the results of the specific indirect immunofluorescence technique IEF-IgM anti R. conorii.

Epidemiology of sporotrichosis in Latin America.

Applying the concept of 'epidemiological chain', it is successively analyzed: the etiologic agent, Sporothrix schenckii and its natural reservoirs (sources of infection); the different ways that infecting particles may reach man (mechanisms of infection); the susceptible population and the population at risk; the incidence and distribution by sex and age in countries of Latin America; the prevalence of the disease according to clinical cases in dermatological clinics and the variation of incidence rates in some countries with time; the influence of the environment mainly climatic conditions on the geographic distribution of the disease. Finally, according to Mackinnon's hypothesis, the climate could have a determining role on the predominance of a certain clinical form on another in different countries.

[Cutaneous lymphangitic-nodular sporotrichosis with multiple portals of entry].

A human case of cutaneous sporotrichosis with three chancriform primary lesions and regional lymphangitis is presented in a male patient infected during the hunting of armadillos. The clinical picture shows very well the usual mechanism of infection for the disease in Uruguay, which is a direct contact of man with armadillos and their burrows.

[Pitted keratolysis of hyperkeratotic form and isolation of the etiologic agent: Corynebacterium sp].

Two cases of "pitted keratolysis" with a very accentuated plantar hyperkeratosis, and the isolation on chocolate thelurite agar of the presumptive etiologic agent, Corynebacterium sp., is presented. In order to keep permanently in mind, for a proper diagnosis, the original description of the disease as "keratoma plantare sulcatum" (Castellani, 1910), we are proposing to distinguish two different clinical forms: The hyperkeratotic one and the common or usual form of "pitted keratolysis" with keratolysis as the main sign.

[Tinea nigra. 1st clinical case in Uruguay].

The first case in Uruguay of 'tinea nigra' is described in a 44-year-old male patient with a maculous pigmented lesion on the right foot. It represents the most meridional case of the disease yet recorded in South America. Exophiala werneckii was isolated in cultures (strain 1905 IHM).

Treatment of superficial and deep-seated mycoses with oral ketoconazole.

Oral ketoconazole was given to 50 patients, 36 with superficial and 14 with deep-seated mycoses. Satisfactory results were obtained in dermatophytoses, pityriasis versicolor, and chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis. Paracoccidioidomycosis also responded well to ketoconazole therapy.

[Linear dermatitis of the calves. I. Clinical, epidemiologic and histopathological aspects].

A new form of contact dermatitis that we have denominated "lineal dermatitis of legs' calfs" is described. After presenting its clinical and histopathological characteristics, we analyse the main pathogenic fractures involved which are essentially related to a direct and intimate contact of calfs' skin with the acute border of buses' seats buits with fiber glass. It is believed that both the "dermatosis parasitaria de las butacas" of Quiroga (1959) and the linear women's calf dermatibis by paedherus (Martino and cols.

[Serology of cutaneous sporotrichosis].

Sporothrix schenckii antigens were tested with seventy-nine sera from human cases of sporotrichosis for their value in the serological diagnosis of extracutaneous forms of the disease. 55.7% of the sera reacted in the tube agglutination test; 29.

[Experimental pathogenicity of isolates of Nocardia asteroides, Nocardia brasiliensis and Nocardia caviae from different sources].

The experimental pathogenicity of 14 isolates of Nocardia brasiliensis, 15 of N. asteroides, and 5 of N. caviae was investigated for the white Swiss mice inoculated intraperitoneally and in the foot pad, and for the guinea-pig and the hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) both inoculated intratesticularly.

[Paracoccidioidomycosis: apropos of 3 new Uruguayan cases].

Three new Uruguayan paracoccidioidomycosis human cases are presented. Two of them correspond to the disseminated form with metastatic lesions at the oral mucosa; the remaining one, with important pulmonary bilateral lesions corresponds to the pure chronic pulmonary form of the disease which is recognized by the first time in the country. No doubt, these clinical forms will be found much more frequently in the endemic areas of Latin America if serological surveys are developed in the near future.

[Onyxis caused by Malassezia (Pityrosporum) ovalis].

Onychia by Malassezia ovalis are described for the first time. They are observed mainly on the hands of young or adult women with semiological characteristics of aphlegmatic onycholysis. In clinical materials M.

[Apropos of the 2nd case of cutaneous granuloma caused by Mycobacterium marinum in Uruguay].

A new, second uruguayan case of cutaneous granuloma by Mycobacterium marinum is presented. The patient a 31 years old white man from Montevideo city had two granulomatous and ulcerated lesions on the right knee, secondary to wounds suffered with mussels' shells 5 years before while cleaning his boat in saline waters close to our Rio de la Plata river. Diagnosis was made by finding the typical acid fast organisms in the lesions, the isolation of the agent in cultures and through experimental inoculation of laboratory animals.

Electrophoretic migration of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis specific antigenic fraction.

Using the technique of immunoelectroosmophoresis-immunodiffusion (IEOP-ID), two antigenic fractions of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis one of them species-specific, produced precipitin bands in both the cathodic and anodic zones. Reactions of complete identity among the bands formed in these zones were demonstrated by a modification of the technique, employing additional wells around the central antigen well. Such bands would correspond to a simple diffusion of the corresponding antigenic fractions rather than to active electrophoretic migration.

[Mycetoma and premycetomatous lesions in Uruguay].

Five cases of mycetomas and 5 "premycetomatous' lesions have been recorded in Uruguay. Two mycetomas were produced by fungi and three by nocardias. The casual fungi were identified as Scedosporium apoispermum in one case and Rubromadurella langeroni in the other.

Paracoccidioidal infection in the wife of a patient with paracoccidioidomycosis.

Three agar immunoprecipitin techniques (double immunodiffusion, immunoelectrophoresis and immunoelectroosmophoresis-immunodiffusion) made with paracoccidioidin and serum of a paracoccidioidomycosis patient's wife, permitted us to observe a specific band in 6 successive samples of blood taken from the wife over a period of 21 months. The case represents an example of a subclinical paracoccidioidomycosis infection that is usually diagnosed in its disseminated, progressive form. Three possible sources of infection are discussed.

[Microsporum gypseum: endothrix parasitism with medium or large spores in hair of children].

Five cases of tinea corporis in children by Microsporum gypseum are presented. In four of them an endothrix type of parasitism with arthrospores 4 to 8 microns in diameter was observed. In the other case ectothrix and endothrix types of parasitism were seen in different hairs.