Emerging antifungal treatment failure of dermatophytosis in Europe: take care or it may become endemic.

BACKGROUND: Dermatophytosis is a world-wide distributed common infection. Antifungal drug resistance in dermatophytosis used to be rare, but unfortunately the current Indian epidemic of atypical widespread recalcitrant and terbinafine-resistant dermatophytosis is spreading and has sporadically been reported in Europe. OBJECTIVES: To explore the occurrence of clinical and mycological proven antifungal drug resistance in dermatophytes in Europe. METHODS: A standardized questionnaire was distributed through the EADV Task Force of Mycology network to dermatologists in Europe. RESULTS: Representatives from 20 countries completed the questionnaires of which 17 (85 %) had observed clinical and/or mycological confirmed antifungal resistance, two countries published cases of antifungal resistance and one country had no known cases. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study confirms that both clinical and mycological antifungal resistance exist in Europe.

Influence of Article Type on the Impact Factor of Dermatology Journals. / Influencia de los distintos tipos de artículo en el factor de impacto de las revistas dermatológicas.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: For scientific journals, achieving a high impact factor (IF) has become a goal in its own right. Our aim was to describe the influence of article type on the IF of dermatology journals. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We used the Scopus database to calculate an IF for Actas Dermo-Sifiliográficas and the major dermatology journals, excluding articles without abstracts, letters to the editor, and conference proceedings. Included articles were classified into 4 categories: case reports, original articles, narrative reviews, and other. We also calculated the mean IF for each article type. We then compared our results with IFs published by the Institute for Scientific Information. RESULTS: The proportion of each type of article differed between journals. Original articles carried the greatest weight in the major journals (BJD, 76.8%; Contact, 81.1%; JAAD, 63.4%; JAMA Dermatol, 63.7%.) but not in Actas Dermo-Sifiliográficas, where only 31.7% were original research articles. A higher IF was associated with the publication of reviews and original articles; a lower IF was associated with the publication of case reports and other article types. CONCLUSIONS: Publishing case reports, which have lower citation rates, leads to a lower IF. Publishing reviews and original articles will lead to a higher IF. Journals that seek a higher IF should probably publish more reviews and original articles and fewer case reports. Editorial boards should seek a balance between the interests of their clinician readers and the journal's need for a higher IF.

Update on the treatment of superficial mycoses.

We review the current treatments available for superficial mycoses and discuss recent developments in pharmacotherapy and the most useful adjuvant treatments. Special emphasis is placed on the proper use of conventional therapies and a number of pharmacoeconomic issues. The review also offers an update on the best treatment choices in particular circumstances. Finally, we discuss some novel contributions found in the literature.

Three cases of type 2 segmental manifestation of multiple glomus tumors: association with linear multiple trichilemmal cysts in a patient.

We report 3 cases of congenital multiple glomus tumors seen during the last 5 years. One of them showed autosomal dominant inheritance with male-to-male transmission. The remaining patients had no family history of similar lesions. The clinical and histopathological aspects of our patients support the recently described type 2 segmental manifestation of multiple glomus tumors. One of the cases showed associated multiple and giant trichilemmal cysts with a linear distribution in the scalp.

Multicenter survey of in vitro antifungal resistance in yeasts of medical importance isolated from Spanish patients.

Twelve Spanish laboratories collected 325 yeast clinical isolates during a 30 day's period, among them 224 Candida albicans, 30 Candida glabrata, and 27 Candida parapsilosis. In vitro antifungal susceptibility to amphotericin B, ketoconazole, fluconazole and itraconazole was determined by an agar diffusion test (Neo-Sensitabs, Rosco, Denmark). All the isolates tested were susceptible in vitroto amphotericin B and nearly all (97.2%) to itraconazole. In vitrosusceptibility to fluconazole and ketoconazole was high (90.2% and 91.4% of isolates, respectively) but showed variations depending on the species tested. Resistance to fluconazole and ketoconazole was low in C. albicans (4% and 3%, respectively), but 30% of Candida guilliermondii and 36% of C. glabrata isolates were resistant to fluconazole. Ketoconazole resistance was observed in 40% of C. glabrata, and 17% of Candida tropicalis. Resistance to antifungal drugs is very low in Spain and it is related to non-C. albicans isolates.

[Dermatophytes classification by PCR.]. / Clasificación de dermatofitos mediante PCR.

Many authors attempt to solve problems in fungal taxonomy using techniques based in molecular biology. We find reports based in different molecular techniques studying genomic, nuclear or mitochondrial DNA that led the authors to establish several specific or generic differences in this group of fungi. But mostly of them are long laboratory procedures. At present study we study a 1450 bp fragment of mtDNA encoding the ND4, ATP6 and SsrDNA and adjacent SsrRNA 3' termini sequence. We use three primer pairs previously designed. The other primer pair amplify the adjacent region of the SSrRNA gene is used as modified by Li et al. Our purpose is to find differences at the species level.

Some remarks concerning Trichophyton proliferans.

We have had the opportunity to study an dermatophyte isolated from the face of a woman, as a result of a fall on the ground. We identified the strain as Trichophyton proliferans whose characteristics, together with a review of the works published about this dermatophyte, lead us to believe that we are dealing with an independent species and not a synonym of T. mentagrophytes var. erinacei.

[Segmental neurofibromatosis]. / Neurofibromatosis segmentaria.

Four cases of segmental neurofibromatosis (SNF) are reported. It is a rare entity considered to be a localized variant of neurofibromatosis (NF)-Riccardi's type V. Two cases are male and two female. The lesions are located to the head in a patient and the other three cases in the trunk. No family history nor transmission to progeny were manifested. The rest of the organs are undamaged.