Young people in foster care and substance use.

Adolescents are at high risk for using substances and for young people in foster care, substance use rates are estimated to be as high as 49 %. Adolescence is an important period for preventing substance use and SUD. Universal screening, brief interventions, and substance use treatment can be used to decrease substance use and substance use disorders among adolescents.

Extracorporeal photopheresis as a treatment for patients with severe, refractory atopic dermatitis.

Introduction: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a complex disease with a variety of possible treatment regimens. The study objective was to demonstrate that methoxsalen used in conjunction with the Uvar XTS photopheresis system (Therakos, Exton, Pa., USA) is safe and can have a clinical effect on the skin manifestations and the quality of life in patients with severe, refractory AD.

Erbium:YAG laser-assisted preparation of a combined dermal/full thickness sandwich skin graft.

Background: Skin grafting is a common procedure to close defects after tumor resection. However, delicate areas such as the heel or the sole of the foot can be closed with a specially designed graft as described in this article.

Objective: To describe a surgical technique by means of erbium:YAG laser-assisted preparation of a combined dermal/full-thickness sandwich skin graft that facilitates the closure of defects, especially at mechanically stressed anatomic sites.

[Extracorporeal photopheresis in progressive systemic sclerosis: discrimination of responders and non-responders].

Background: The benefit of extracorporeal photopheresis (ExP) in progressive systemic sclerosis (PSS) is controversial. There is limited experience with the long-term use of ExP in PSS. The purpose of the present study was to distinguish between responders and non-responders by using ExP in PSS and to evaluate activation markers for PSS.

Overexpression of c-myb in leukaemic and non-leukaemic variants of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.

Background: The c-myb oncogene is a transcription factor that regulates proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis of haematopoietic cells and activated T cells by binding to promoter sequences of such genes as c-myc or bcl-2 that are expressed in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL).

Objective: Our study was performed in order to evaluate c-myb expression as a quantitative parameter for differential diagnosis in leukaemic and non-leukaemic variants of CTCL.

Methods: c-myb expression was analysed in lesional skin and in the peripheral blood of 21 patients with mycosis fungoides (MF), 15 patients with Sézary syndrome (SS) and 15 patients with inflammatory skin diseases using immunohistochemistry and semiquantitative as well as quantitative RT-PCR.

Bicentre experience in the treatment of severe generalised atopic dermatitis with extracorporeal photochemotherapy.

Pilot studies have shown an improvement of atopic dermatitis in approximately 65% of patients during extracorporeal photopheresis (ExP) therapy. The purpose of the present clinical trial was to investigate the response to ExP by controlling clinical and laboratory parameters during short term ExP therapy in patients with severe generalised atopic dermatitis. Thirty-five patients with severe, therapy-resistant atopic dermatitis were treated with ExP in an open clinical trial at two week intervals over a period of 6 to 10 cycles.

Shower PUVA: a novel variant of photochemotherapy. Distribution of photosensitivity and accumulation of trioxsalen in the skin.

Shower PUVA is a new variant of photochemotherapy suitable for therapy of various skin disorders. Psoralen, e.g.

Mechanisms of apoptosis: UVA1-induced immediate and UVB-induced delayed apoptosis in human T cells in vitro.

Objective: The decreased number of lymphocytes combined with the induction of apoptosis and necrosis seems to be the key mechanism of many phototherapeutic agents. The purpose of our study was to determine the regulating pathway, time course and dose dependence of UVA1- vs. UVB-induced cell death in human T lymphocytes.

Histometric data obtained by in vivo confocal laser scanning microscopy in patients with systemic sclerosis.

Background: It would be a benefit if time-saving, non-invasive methods could give hints for diagnosing systemic sclerosis. To investigate the skin of patients with systemic sclerosis using confocal laser scanning microscopy in vivo and to develop histometric parameters to describe characteristic cutaneous changes of systemic sclerosis observed by this new technique, we conducted an exploratory study.

Materials And Methods: Fifteen patients with systemic sclerosis treated with extracorporal photopheresis were compared with 15 healthy volunteers and 10 patients with other disorders also treated with extracorporal photopheresis.

[Shower PUVA: a new possibility for topical PUVA therapy. Phototoxicity in relation to shower time, water temperature and skin type].

During the past few years, bath PUVA has become established as an effective treatment for various dermatoses and especially for psoriasis. Using 3,4,5 trimethylpsoralen (TMP) in combination with subsequent UVA irradiation, a shower PUVA has been developed as an alternative in local PUVA therapy. This involves moistening the patient's skin - with the exception of the head and neck area - in a shower using water containing psoralen (TMP concentration 0,27 mg/l).