Two pre-Willan descriptions of psoriasis.

Accurate descriptions of skin lesions, and in particular of those of what we now call osiriasis vulgaris, are rare before the book of Willan's On Cutaneous Diseases at the very beginning of the 19th century. Here we present two instances in which such clinical descriptions are given. Benjamin Franklin wrote about his own skin lesions and their evolution.

Pharmacokinetics of acitretin.

Acitretin, the metabolite of etretinate, is eliminated far more rapidly from the human body than is etretinate. It has therefore been suggested that only a short period of contraception would be required following the completion of long-term therapy. However, recent studies have demonstrated the presence of etretinate in the plasma of acitretin-treated patients.

Skin, adipose tissue and plasma levels of acitretin with rare occurrence of esterified acitretin during long-term treatment.

In a previous study acitretin and its 13-cis-metabolite were monitored in the plasma and epidermis of healthy volunteers. They were given 50 mg of trans-acitretin daily. No drug accumulation was observed in the skin, nor in the plasma.