Clinical characteristics and systemic therapies administered to first-time patients at a tertiary psoriasis outpatient clinic.

Background: The aim of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics and the systemic therapies given to a cohort of patients attending for the first time our tertiary psoriasis outpatient clinic.

Methods: Data were extracted from an electronic database where the patients, mostly eligible for systemic therapies, are consecutively recorded. Based on skin disease severity the subjects were classified into three groups: group 1, mild psoriasis (MP; Psoriasis Area Severity Index [PASI]≤5); group 2, mild-to-moderate psoriasis (MMP; 510).

Clinical and Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Echography Outcomes in Psoriatic Arthritis Patients after One Year of Continuous Therapy with Anti-TNF Drugs.

Background. We wanted to verify retrospectively the proportion of patients with psoriatic arthritis who were in remission after 1 year of continuous therapy with either etanercept or adalimumab. Remission was defined as the absence of both clinical and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) findings suggestive of joint inflammation.

Capillaroscopy in psoriatic and rheumatoid arthritis: a useful tool for differential diagnosis.

Impairment of capillaries permeability and changes of microcirculation are associated with inflammatory arthritis. In order to demonstrate microvascular differences between psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) we analyzed capillaroscopic abnormalities such as megacapillaries, haemorrhages, ramifications, and avascular areas in patients affected by these two rheumatic disorders. Moreover to identify specific capillaroscopy patterns we analyzed the following parameters: venous limb diameter, arterial limb diameter, capillary loop diameter, amplitude of the capillary loop, linear density of capillaries (on 2 mm), and number of twisted capillaries (on 4 mm).

Epidemiology of skin disorders in Ethiopian children and adolescents: an analysis of records from the Italian Dermatological Centre, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia, 2005 to 2009.

Skin disorders are an important problem in children living in developing countries, but only a few epidemiologic investigations on pediatric dermatoses are available in the literature. Our study is an analysis of the range and frequency of skin diseases presenting to the Italian Dermatological Center in a pediatric Ethiopian population. A retrospective analysis was performed on 17,967 medical records of children aged 0 to 18 years attending the Italian Dermatological Centre in Mekele (Ethiopia) from January 2005 to December 2009.

Treatment of erythrodermic psoriasis in HCV+ patient with adalimumab.

Erythrodermic psoriasis is a severe and disabling variant of psoriasis. The authors present the case of a 48-year-old man with psoriasis and hemophilia presented with a history of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection treated with pegylated interferon alpha-2a and ribavirin therapy. At the end of antiviral therapy, skin manifestation progressively worsened, becoming erythrodermic, with lack of efficacy of steroid therapy.

Skin ulcers in a patient afflicted with microscopic polyangiitis.

Systemic vasculitis is a group of heterogeneous diseases characterized by inflammation and blood vessel walls necrosis. Usually the skin is one of the first organs involved, especially with damage of small to medium size vessels. The cutaneous patterns may help clinicians to diagnose these diseases at the beginning of their course, preventing complications due to internal organ involvement.

The use of elastocompressive therapy in a patient with acroangiodermatitis of the lower limb.

 Acroangiodermatitis is a rare vasoproliferative disorder, usually affecting the lower limbs and is associated with congenital or acquired vascular conditions. There are two variants of acroangiodermatitis-Mali type (associated with venous hypertension) and Stewart-Bluefarb type, which is associated with arteriovenous malformation, or acquired iatrogenic arteriovenous fistula in patients with chronic renal failure. Acroangiodermatitis is clinically characterized by angiomatous papules and plaques, which mimics Kaposi's sarcoma.