Experimental inhalation of fragrance allergens in predisposed subjects: effects on skin and airways.

Background: Exposure to fragrances is increasingly encountered in the environment. Some fragrances are known to be important skin and potential airway sensitizers.

Objectives: We investigated whether patients with contact allergy to isoeugenol (ISO) or hydroxyisohexyl-3-carboxaldehyde (HICC) would react to inhalation exposure at the level of the airways and skin.

Pimecrolimus cream (1%) efficacy in perioral dermatitis - results of a randomized, double-blind, vehicle-controlled study in 40 patients.

Background: Perioral dermatitis (POD) is a common skin disease and difficult to treat. Pimecrolimus cream (1%) successfully controls atopic eczema.

Objective: Our aim was to investigate its efficacy in POD.

[The most frequent allergens in allergic contact dermatitis].

Background And Objective: The prevalence of allergic contact dermatitis is high. Patch testing is the standard procedure to detect contact sensitivity. More than 3000 allergens are known, today.

Cross-sensitization between poppy seed and buckwheat in a food-allergic patient with poppy seed anaphylaxis.

The opium poppy, Papaver somniferum L., is the source of both poppy seeds and opium. The commercially available seeds are widely used as ingredients for various kinds of food.

[Facial foreign body granulomas after dermal injection of a polylactate-based implant for wrinkles].

New methods are constantly introduced for soft tissue augmentation to correction of scars and wrinkles. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. A 48 year old woman developed visible and palpable plaques and papules after treatment of the nasolabial and glabella folds with a poly L-lactic acid implant.

Anaphylaxis to viscotoxins of mistletoe (Viscum album) extracts.

Background: Extracts of mistletoe (Viscum album) are used in many countries for adjuvant cancer therapy. These extracts contain mistletoe lectins and viscotoxins that are supposed to have immunostimulating and cytotoxic effects, respectively. The treatment is usually well tolerated.

Tacrolimus ointment causes inflammatory dendritic epidermal cell depletion but no Langerhans cell apoptosis in patients with atopic dermatitis.

Background: The topical immunomodulators tacrolimus and pimecrolimus are novel therapeutic options for atopic dermatitis (AD). The inhibition of nuclear factor of activated T cell-dependent proinflammatory cytokine production in cutaneous lymphocytes is an established effect of topical immunomodulators, which additionally influence mast cells, eosinophils, and dendritic cells (DCs). The latter include a reduced expression of the high-affinity IgE receptor FcepsilonRI, a reduced stimulatory capacity of lesional DCs, and a selective depletion of the inflammatory dendritic epidermal cells (IDECs) but not of Langerhans cells (LCs) from the lesional skin.

Actinic keratosis: the key event in the evolution from photoaged skin to squamous cell carcinoma. Therapy based on pathogenetic and clinical aspects.

Skin aging is the result of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Extrinsic aging, also called photoaging, is mainly caused by ultraviolet radiation from the sun and leads to a state which has been termed dermatoheliosis. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of photoaged skin addressing actinic keratoses (AKs) in particular.

Topical treatment with imiquimod may induce regression of facial keratoacanthoma.

Keratoacanthoma (KA) is a rapidly growing tumour histologically resembling squamous cell carcinoma. Although it may regress spontaneously, KA is routinely treated by excision or radiation therapy. Here we report on the successful therapeutic use of imiquimod for the treatment of KA.

Onychodystrophy and its management.

Onychodystrophy represents various pathologic processes of the nails such as infectious and noninfectious disorders including onychomycosis, psoriasis and allergic and irritant dermatitis. Nail changes may also be a clue to other dermatological or systemic diseases. But often it is difficult to establish the diagnosis as most nail changes are unspecific.

Phacomatosis pigmentokeratotica (Happle) in a 23-year-old man.

Phacomatosis pigmentokeratotica is a rare but highly characteristic disease defined by the occurrence of an organoid naevus with sebaceous differentiation, a speckled-lentiginous naevus and other associated anomalies. It is probably caused by the twin-spot phenomenon. We report on a 23-year-old male electrician with 10 irregularly shaped, sharply demarcated, brownish-yellow papillomatous plaques following Blaschko's lines, as well as 6 large, sharply demarcated, round to oval, slightly greyish macules with pewit-egg-like dots, involving both buttocks, the right thigh, the right knee, the right pectoral region and the upper back.

Expression and function of the mannose receptor CD206 on epidermal dendritic cells in inflammatory skin diseases.

The capability to take up mannosylated protein antigens is important for the biologic function of dendritic cells, as many glycoproteins derived from bacteria and fungi, e.g., Malassezia furfur, are mannosylated.

Improvement of weight loss and metabolic effects of vertical banded gastroplasty by an added duodenal switch procedure.

Background: Some patients who underwent vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG) need revisional operations because of poor weight loss and remaining comorbidities. The duodenal switch (DS) procedure with partial gastrectomy is known as an effective method for treatment of severe obesity and related dyslipoproteinemias and diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2). Other investigations have shown that DS without gastric resection similarly corrects hypercholesterolemia and DM2 in the "less than" morbidly obese patients.

Atopic dermatitis: pathogenetic mechanisms.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease with increasing incidence and socio-economical relevance. The diagnosis is made on clinical grounds and different diagnostic criteria sets have been established. The majority of all AD cases is associated with a sensitization to environmental allergens and increased serum IgE (so-called extrinsic AD), but about 10--30% of all cases suffer from the so-called intrinsic AD, which obviously lacks any link to the classical atopic diathesis.

Phenotyping of epidermal dendritic cells allows the differentiation between extrinsic and intrinsic forms of atopic dermatitis.

Unlabelled: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a clinically characteristic, chronic inflammatory skin disease of unknown origin. IgE-mediated uptake and antigen focusing of environmental allergens by dendritic cells (DCs) is assumed to be a central immunopathogenetic event. A so-called intrinsic type of AD (IAD) has been delineated from the more common extrinsic AD (EAD) by normal serum IgE levels, negative RAST tests and negative immediate-type skin reactions towards environmental allergens.

NF-kappaB and AP-1 are responsible for inducibility of the IL-6 promoter by ionizing radiation in HeLa cells.

Purpose: To investigate the mechanisms leading to initiation by ionizing radiation of IL-6 transcription in HeLa cells.

Materials And Methods: HeLa cells were irradiated with X-rays at a dose rate of approximately 1 Gy/min or treated with TPA (100 ng/ml). Transient transfection analysis with truncated IL-6 promoter CAT constructs was used to identify the radiation-sensitive region within the IL-6 promoter/enhancer.

Successful bariatric surgery in a patient who underwent more than 100 various operations.

A 44-year-old woman who weighed 130 kg (height 158 cm, BMI 52) with a complicated psychiatric history was referred for obesity surgery because of severe sleep apnea, obesity hypoventilation syndrome with frequent pneumonias, arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, polyarthralgia and back pain, venous insufficiency, dysmenorrhea, severe heartburn, and incisional hernia. From childhood until 1983, she had undergone 106 operations, mainly for septic/pyemic and intra-abdominal abscesses, 86 of them under general anesthesia. In the 4 years before undergoing bariatric surgery, she had gained 40 kg, nonoperative attempts at weight reduction had failed.

[Vertical gastroplasty as a treatment method in morbid obesity].

Since November 1992 in the RRCS. RAMS 38 patients aged 16-61 years (mean body mass 149.9 kg) for obesity of 3-4 grade underwent operation of vertical gastroplasty (VGP) by E.

[Surgical treatment of chronic calculous cholecystitis and its complications].

Introduction of endoscopic and laparoscopic methods in surgical treatment of chronic calculous cholecystitis and its complications has changed not only the character of surgical interventions, but the surgical policy as well. The operation of choice in uncomplicated calculous cholecystitis is laparoscopic cholecystectomy, which whenever indicated, is advisable to be combined with other surgical interventions allowing the recovery from the concomitant surgical diseases. In complicated calculous cholecystitis in dependence on the character of bile ducts disorder and patient's condition, 3 versions of surgical interventions are possible: one stage radical correction of all pathologic changes of the biliary tract and surgical treatment, including 2-3 separate, less traumatic and more tolerable procedure.

Vertical banded gastroplasty: first experience in Russia.

Background: The first experience of vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG) in the Russian National Research Center of Surgery is presented.

Methods: From November 1992 to October 1996, 24 morbidly obese patients (mean body weight 147.7 kg, BMI 52.

Induction of interleukin 6 by ionizing radiation in a human epithelial cell line: control by corticosteroids.

The cutaneous radiation syndrome after therapeutic or accidental exposure of human skin to ionizing radiation (IR) is accompanied by inflammatory processes which are controlled partly by proinflammatory cytokines. Besides tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and interleukin (IL)1, the pluripotent cytokine IL-6 belongs to the key mediators of inflammation. So far, there are no reports about the regulation of IL-6 by IR in epidermal cells.

[X-ray study of the stomach after vertical gastroplasty in the treatment of morbid obesity].

The operation vertical gastroplasty is used to treat the so-called morbid obesity. It ends with the formation of a small stomach. Some experience gained with X-ray of the stomach is analyzed in 17 patients undergone vertical gastroplasty.

[First experience with vertical gastroplasty in the treatment of patients with 4th-degree obesity].

The article discusses four operations for vertical gastroplasty performed for the first time in Russia at the Research Centre of Surgery, RAMS, for degree IV obesity (the body weight of the patients ranged from 115 to 183 kg). The suturing instruments CEEA-28, TA-90, and CIA-90 manufactured by Auto Suture Instruments, USA, were used. Subsequent examination of patients in follow-up periods of as long as 4 months showed a favorable effect of the operations: body weight reduced, the patient's health and the course of concomitant diseases was milder.