[Treatment of pityriasis alba with a combination of coal tar, diiodohydroxyquinolin and hydrocortisone]. / Tratammiento de la pityriasis alba con la asociación de alquitrán de hulla, diyodohidroxiquinoleina e hidrocortisona.

Pityriasis Alba, a dermatosis whose significance is basically cosmetic, is extremely common and so benign that the majority of patients-dark skinned children and young people do not consult a physician. Nevertheless due to its high incidence and chronicity a large number of patients eventually seek relief. The various treatments currently employed based on a mistaken concept of its etiology are ineffective, though the dermatosis disappears spontaneously after some time. The use of cream containing 2% coal tar., 1% diiodohydroxyquinolin and 0.5% hydrocortisone applied 3 times a day for one month on 29 patients in a double blind trial compared with on the contralateral region, proved to have acceptable results, with a highly significant difference compared with the placebo (P less than 0,0005).

Different degrees of morbidity, in the white mouse, induced by Nocardia brasiliensis, Nocardia asteroides and Nocardia caviae.

The respective degrees of morbidity induced by 6 strains each of Nocardia brasiliensis, N. asteroides and N. caviae were investigated by the method of inoculation in the plantar pad of the white mouse, using a suspension of these nocardiae at a concentration of 10 mg/0-1 ml., and inspecting the animals one month, two months and three months following inoculation. All of the strains of N. brasiliensis produced attack greater and more consistent than that of the other species, N. caviae and N. asteroides showing patterns of attack similar to each other, but substantially lower than those obtained with N. brasiliensis. The 6 strains of N. brasiliensis showed different rates of infection at different times of observation, but it was constantly high for all of them; on the other hand, the infectiousness of the different strains of N. caviae and N. asteroides was low, and there were no substantial differences between them. To sum up, these results with 6 strains of each species confirm those that were published in 1973 which dealt with only one strain of each species.