Content - Volume 90, Issue 1

How you frame a question may determine the response. For example, if someone asks me about my mild eczema by preceding the question with certain value-laden phrases indicating that it should be perceived as a negative “medical” problem, then I am perhaps more likely to respond in a stereotypical way that agrees with the researcher – that my condition is a problem that impacts on many aspects ...

The purpose of a scientific journal is to help disseminate news and views in research. The better the article and the more accessible the journal, the more effectively will the authors’ message reach the scientific community. From the perspective of rapid dissemination of scientific research, immediate open access of an article on the internet is no doubt preferable. However, for the sake of qua ...

Lupi et al. present, on p. 80–81, an interesting case report of dyshidrosiform palmo-plantar pemphigoid. They describe a 20-year-old man who had had itchy vesicles on his palms and soles for 1 year. Histologically, a subepidermal vesicle was seen, and direct immunofluorescence showed continuous linear deposition of IgG and C3 at the dermal-epidermal junction. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay ...

In this issue Alsterholm et al. (p. 52–57) present data from Sweden on fusidic acid resistant Staphylococcus aureus (FRSA) isolated from cases of impetigo and atopic dermatitis, respectively. They found high numbers of FRSA in impetigo, ranging from 75% in bullous impetigo to 32% in non-bullous impetigo. By contrast, significantly lower numbers of FRSA (6.1%) were detected in secondarily infecte ...

Hypopigmentation disorders in children can be due to a wide variety of congenital and acquired diseases. A clinical approach to hypopigmentation disorders based on the typical age of onset and the extent of lesions is proposed. The disorders are categorized into onset in early and later childhood, and in each category they are subdivided into localized and generalized pigmentary disorders. Clinica ...

Pruritus has a well-known association with Hodgkin’s disease and other nodal lymphomas; indeed it often rev­eals the disease. Pruritus is also an important symptom of cutaneous T-cell lymphomas. Lymphoma-associated itch is thus both frequent and severe, but its pathophysiology remains unclear. Few studies have evaluated the efficacy of therapeutic agents in the management of cutaneous T-cell ly ...

Eosinophilic pustular folliculitis is an inflammatory skin disease characterized by pruritic follicular papulo­pustules. It is usually resistant to topical and/or systemic corticosteroids, but it responds well to systemic indomethacin. We report here two patients with classical-type disease who were treated with systemic indomethacin. As indomethacin is an inhibitor of cyclo-oxygenases and a pote ...

In recent years, numerous reports have demonstrated an association between psoriasis and metabolic syndrome. However, some studies failed to demonstrate an association between psoriasis and hypertension. The aim of the present study was to examine the association be­tween psoriasis and hypertension. Psoriasis patients of a health-maintenance organization were compared with enrollees without psori ...

There is evidence that stimulants such as alcohol and tobacco have an effect on the immune system, but little is known about how these lifestyle factors affect the prevalence of contact sensitization. This study investigated whether smoking and alcohol consumption were associated with contact sensitization and nickel sensitization. A random sample of adults (n = 3460) from the general populati ...

Subjective-symptom tools used in dermatology have rarely been experimentally tested for cognitive “focus” and “framing” biases. We investigated the effects of affective biases on the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), the Global Health Question and visual analogue scores. Two experiments tested the response to affect-eliciting words and film. We demonstrated no significant difference i ...

Few studies have investigated subjective sensory skin symptoms in patients with psoriasis. The aim of this study was to investigate prevalence and characteristics of psoriasis-related skin pain and discomfort, and evaluate differences in demographic/clinical characteristics among patients with or without skin symptoms. A total of 139 patients was recruited for this exploratory, descriptive, cross- ...

Patients frequently report high levels of physical symptoms, such as itch and pain, which do not completely correspond to pathophysiological findings, possibly indication heightened sensitivity to physical symptoms. Sensitivity to itch and pain is thought to be affected by processes such as attentional focus on bodily sensations. We investigated the role of attentional focus in sensitivity to vari ...

Fusidic acid-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (FRSA) has been identified as a causative agent in outbreaks of impetigo and its emergence has been associated with increased use of topical fusidic acid. The frequency of FRSA in atopic dermatitis (AD) has been less extensively investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate the bacterial spectrum and frequency of FRSA in patients with impetigo ...

Adult and pediatric patients (n = 347) with atopic dermatitis enrolled in three multicenter, randomized, 6-week studies who had previously used steroids were analyzed to examine the null hypothesis that improvement in atopic dermatitis initiated after prior treatment with steroids eliminates any subsequent treatment differences between tacrolimus ointment and pimecrolimus cream. Of these patie ...

Progressive mucinous histiocytosis is a very rare, benign, non-Langerhans’ cell histiocytosis limited to the skin. In total ten patients (all women) in four families and three sporadic cases have been reported. We report here the first published case of a male patient with progressive mucinous histiocytosis. The multiple red papules on the scalp and forearms were asymptomatic and had slowly incr ...

The leukaemic form of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, as represented by Sézary syndrome, exhibits erythroderma. We describe here an indolent leukaemic patient with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, who initially had a nodulo-tumourous eruption with a crop of solid papules, but finally presented with papuloerythroderma. Histologically, the skin lesions showed non-epidermotropic dermal infiltration of atypical ...

Cutaneous adverse effects of imatinib mesylate (Glivec®) are common and various types of skin eruptions have been reported. We report here a 57-year-old man who presented with lichen planus-like lesions on his extremities and palmoplantar hyperkeratosis due to the use of imatinib mesylate for chronic myeloid leukaemia. The skin lesions improved after discontinuation of imatinib mesylate but re-ad ...

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