Publications by authors named "Elisa Difonzo"

Dermatophyte infections frequently pose diagnostic challenges, especially when occurring alongside ichthyosis, a genetic skin disorder characterized by dry, thickened, scaly skin. This case series outlines three cases where dermatophyte infections overlapped with ichthyosis, emphasizing the complexities in clinical identification and differential diagnosis. Atypical clinical presentations in these cases led to initial misdiagnoses.

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A 67-year-old woman presented with a 3-month history of patchy alopecia areata (AA)-like hair loss and multiple painful enlarged lymph nodes at cervical, nuchal, and left axillary site. The patient was on follow-up for IgM monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, stable for many years. A punch biopsy from a patch of the temporal scalp revealed the presence of B-cell lymphoid infiltrates consistent with marginal zone B-cell lymphoma (MZL).

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Aim: We collected 'real-life' data on the management of patients with mastocytosis in the Italian Mastocytosis Registry.

Methods: Six hundred patients diagnosed with mastocytosis between 1974 and 2014 were included from 19 centers.

Results: Among adults (n = 401); 156 (38.

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Background: In order to treat onychomycosis, topical and systemic medications are available. The choice of a systemic or topic treatment depends on numerous factors, such as patient's age, the presence of comorbidity, responsible fungal species, the clinical form of onychomycosis, its location (fingernails or toenails), the number of nails affected and the percentage of the nail plate infected. As for topical medications, given that nail plate has an insufficiently permeable structure, it is necessary to use appropriate formulae that create in the surface of the nail plate a film able, in turn, to function both as an active ingredient's deposit and moisturising agent in nail's superficial layers in order to facilitate the spread of the active ingredient.

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The prevalence of onychomycosis differs according to geographic area and over time and is influenced by several factors. The epidemiology of onychomycosis in Italy is still unclear. To evaluate the prevalence of onychomycosis in a representative sample of the Italian population a group of Dermatologists and General Practitioners carried out an observational survey on the patients coming to their office during a 1-month period.

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Lipoatrophia semicircularis is characterised by band-like horizontal skin depressions involving the anterior and lateral sides of the lower limbs. Whether this occurrence is rare or is just not well known or simply underreported because it does not cause patient distress is still under discussion. In a 1-year period we observed three cases due to local, mechanical pressure in an Italian dermatology outpatient clinic.

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