Efficacy of Finasteride for Treating Patients with Androgenetic Alopecia who are Pileous in other Areas: A Pilot Study in Japan.

Background: Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) involves androgen-dependent hair loss and finasteride is an established treatment for the disease. However, reports of the influence of finasteride on hair growth in other areas of the body are lacking.

Aims: To investigate the effects of finasteride on hair, including the head and other areas of the body.

A pilot study of medium-dose cyclosporine for the treatment of palmoplantar pustulosis complicated with pustulotic arthro-osteitis.

Pustulotic arthro-osteitis (PAO), which is one of the most intractable complications of palmoplantar pustulosis (PPP), is resistant to conventional therapies such as oral administration of NSAIDs. The main purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of cyclosporine for treating PPP with PAO. Seven patients affected by PPP with PAO were enrolled, and were treated with cyclosporine at medium doses ranging from 2 to 3 mg/kg/day.

Drug rash with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS): changing carbamazepine to phenobarbital controlled epilepsy without the recurrence of DRESS.

We report a case of drug rash with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) due to carbamazepine. Anticonvulsants are the most common medicines causing DRESS and once it occurs, it is difficult to find an effective alternative treatment. In our case, switching from carbamazepine to phenobarbital successfully controlled both the DRESS and the convulsions.

Sister Mary Joseph's nodule: a clue to finding pancreatic cancer in a patient previously affected by gastric cancer.

An 82-year-old man with Sister Mary Joseph's nodule (SMJN) is reported. He had a past history of gastric cancer, which had been removed in its early stage. Histopathological findings, in which CA19-9 and other markers, such as PCNA and p53, were strongly positive in SMJN but negative in specimens from the gastric cancer, suggested that the nodule had derived from another internal malignancy and a detailed search led to the discovery of a pancreatic cancer.