De novo HIV infection diagnoses in a Department of Dermatology and Venereology in Lisbon, Portugal.

Background Portugal has the highest prevalence rate of HIV infection in Western Europe. The proportion of patients with a late diagnosis, carried out in full-blown AIDS stage, remains high. Skin and mucous membrane manifestations are not rare in these patients.

Imatinib: a novel treatment approach for generalized morphea.

Background: Morphea is a rare chronic inflammatory disease that involves skin and subcutaneous tissues, causing skin sclerosis. Generalized morphea is characterized by extensive cutaneous involvement and poor response to therapy. Although the pathophysiology for morphea is not completely understood, abnormal signaling through the platelet-derived growth factor and transforming growth factor beta axes seems to play a major role in the inflammatory response and sclerotic process.

Diffuse neurofibroma--an uncommon cause of alopecia.

Although infrequent, alopecia can be caused by benign cutaneous tumours. Neurofibromas are common benign tumors that originate in the peripheral nerve sheath. Diffuse neurofibroma is a rare variant of neurofibroma that is thought to occur mainly in the head and neck of children and young adults.

Psoriasis triggered by tetanus-diphtheria vaccination.

Psoriasis is a common inflammatory disease with multiple known triggers. We report the case of a patient whose psoriasis was triggered by tetanus and diphtheria immunization (Td vaccine). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of psoriasis triggered by the Td vaccine.

Phototherapy for pityriasis lichenoides: our experience.

Pityriasis lichenoides is a benign disease that includes a continuous spectrum with two polar ends: pityriasis lichenoides et varioliformis acuta (PLEVA) and pityriasis lichenoides chronica (PLC). Although its benign and self-limited character, treatment is required, both for itch relief and for cosmetic issues. The present study is a retrospective analysis of 13 patients (11 PLC and 2 PLEVA) treated in our institution with psoralen plus ultraviolet A (PUVA) or ultraviolet A combined with ultraviolet B (UVA/UVB) during the period 1998-2011.

Sensitization to methylisothiazolinone in a group of methylchloroisothiazolinone/methylisothiazolinone allergic patients.

In the EU, Methylisothiazolinone (MI) was approved as a preservative in cosmetics and household products in 2005. Since then, several cases of MI contact allergy have been reported. We studied the prevalence of MI sensitization in patients allergic to Methylchloroisothiazolinone/Methylisothiazolinone (MCI/MI).