Temporary hair removal by low fluence photoepilation: histological study on biopsies and cultured human hair follicles.

Background And Objectives: We have recently shown that repeated low fluence photoepilation (LFP) with intense pulsed light (IPL) leads to effective hair removal, which is fully reversible. Contrary to permanent hair removal treatments, LFP does not induce severe damage to the hair follicle. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the impact of LFP on the structure and the physiology of the hair follicle.

Surgical excision versus curettage plus cryosurgery in the treatment of basal cell carcinoma.

Background: Both cryosurgery, with and without prior curettage, and surgical excision (SE) are common therapeutic strategies for basal cell carcinoma (BCC).

Objective: The objective was to compare the efficacy between curettage plus cryosurgery (C&C) and SE in nonaggressive BCC of the head and neck.

Materials And Methods: A randomized controlled trial was carried out, in which tumors were assigned to either C&C (n=51) or SE (n=49).

[A pseudo-outbreak of pharyngeal gonorrhoea related to a false-positive PCR-result].

Nucleic acid amplification tests, including the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), are sensitive and specific tests that are often used for diagnosing sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). A pseudo-outbreak of pharyngeal gonorrhoea in a group of prostitutes turned out to have been caused by false-positive test results due to commensal oropharyngeal Neisseria species. Specific molecular tests may yield erroneous results.

Evaluation of conventional and real-time PCR assays using two targets for confirmation of results of the COBAS AMPLICOR Chlamydia trachomatis/Neisseria gonorrhoeae test for detection of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in clinical samples.

Two conventional PCR-enzyme immunoassays (PCR-EIAs) and two real-time PCR assays (LightCycler system; Roche Diagnostics) were evaluated as confirmation assays with cppB and 16S rRNA genes as targets. Of 765 male and female genitourinary and nasopharyngeal specimens positive for Neisseria gonorrhoeae in the COBAS AMPLICOR Chlamydia trachomatis/Neisseria gonorrhoeae PCR test (Roche Diagnostics), 229 (30%) were confirmed positive; 13 of these (5.7%) were lacking the cppB gene.

[Penis friction edema: not a venereal disease].

A 35-year-old man presented with a local swelling of the penis, which increased until the entire penis was thick and swollen. After infectious and obstructive causes had been eliminated, a diagnosis of 'penis friction oedema' was made. The swelling disappeared during several weeks of abstinence from sexual intercourse.