Comparison of a two- or three-week regimen and a review of treatment of erythema migrans with phenoxymethylpenicillin.

Background: A longer duration treatment is preferred in erythema migrans (EM) to prevent late complaints.

Objectives: To determine whether 20 (20d-pt) or 14 days (14d-pt) of phenoxymethylpenicillin (PenV) have similar efficacy in treating EM and preventing further sequelae.

Patients And Methods: In a prospective double-centre study, 102 patients with EM were treated with PenV 1.

Reduction of treatment frequency and UVA dose does not substantially compromise the antipsoriatic effect of oral psoralen-UVA.

Background: The carcinogenic potential of 8-methoxypsoralen photochemotherapy (psoralen-UVA [PUVA]) is correlated with the total number of treatments and cumulative UVA dose applied during oral PUVA therapy.

Objective: We sought to determine whether reducing treatment frequency and UVA dose affects the therapeutic efficacy of oral PUVA for patients with chronic plaque psoriasis.

Methods: This was a prospective, randomized, half-side study performed in a photodermatology department in a dermatology hospital.

Dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa inversa with COL7A1 mutations and absence of GDA-J/F3 protein.

Epidermolysis bullosa dystrophica inversa (DEB-I) is a very rare disease characterized by autosomal recessive inheritance that causes blistering and erosions on the trunk and extremities occurring in early infancy with a predilection for flexural and mucosal areas thereafter. Ultrastructural findings show dermolytic blistering and absent or rudimentary anchoring fibrils as in generalized forms of dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa. Immunoreactivity for type VII collagen, however, is preserved.

Pseudolymphoma occurring in a tattoo.

Pseudolymphomas are reactive inflammatory disorders due to different causative agents. Only a few cases of pseudolymphomas resulting from a tattoo have been described in the literature. We describe a 34-year-old woman with a nodular infiltrate limited to the red areas of a tattoo which had been administered 6 years before.

[Psoriasis as Koebner phenomenon in erythma migrans].

The Koebner phenomenon, described by Koebner in 1876, represents the appearance of isomorphic skin lesions in uninvolved skin in patients suffering from certain skin diseases. It can be induced by different mechanical, chemical, thermal and infectious stimuli. A 48 year-old woman developed an exacerbation of a latent psoriasis as a Koebner phenomenon in a migrating erythema caused by Borrelia afzelii infection.

Automated detection of connective tissue by tissue counter analysis and classification and regression trees.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility of the CART (Classification and Regression Tree) procedure for the recognition of microscopic structures in tissue counter analysis.

Methods: Digital microscopic images of H & E; stained slides of normal human skin and of primary malignant melanoma were overlayed with regularly distributed square measuring masks (elements) and grey value, texture and colour features within each mask were recorded. In the learning set, elements were interactively labeled as representing either connective tissue of the reticular dermis, other tissue components or background.

Tissue counter analysis of dermatoscopic images of melanocytic skin tumours: preliminary findings.

In tissue counter analysis, a novel image analysis tool in the evaluation of dermatoscopic images, a lattice of elementary measuring masks (elements) of equal size is randomly placed over the image and the contents of each element is evaluated by a set of colour and texture features. In this study, we tested the efficiency of tissue counter analysis on the diagnostic discrimination of benign and malignant melanocytic skin lesions. In order to assess the amount of benign and malignant tumour elements in each case, 20 cases each of naevus and malignant melanoma were sampled.

[Risk factors for local complications in erysipelas].

Background And Objective: A complicated course of erysipelas is not uncommon. Bullous, haemorrhagic, necrotic and purulent lesions may be encountered. Today no reliable data exist as to which constitutional factors renders a patient at risk for developing complicated erysipelas though several risk factors, particularly diabetes mellitus, are often suggested.