Reporting rates for severe hypersensitivity reactions associated with prescription-only drugs in outpatient treatment in Germany.

PURPOSE: To determine which 10 prescription-only drugs used in outpatient treatment in Germany are most frequently reported to induce severe drug hypersensitivity reactions taking into account their prescription numbers. In addition, the reader should be made aware of respective databases available to the public and their limitations. METHODS: Reports of anaphylactic and severe cutaneous adverse reactions were identified in the adverse drug reaction database of the German competent authority for the time period January 1998 to December 2012. For frequently reported drugs, the total number of reports was matched with their total number of prescriptions resulting in the reporting rate. RESULTS: Among the 10 drugs with the highest reporting rate for anaphylactic reactions, there were six antibiotics (moxifloxacin, levofloxacin, clindamycin, ciprofloxacin, cefuroxime and amoxicillin), three of which were fluoroquinolones. The other four drugs were glatiramer, metamizole and two angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors. Concerning severe cutaneous adverse reactions, four out of ten drugs were antibiotics (clindamycin, sulfamethoxazol + trimethoprim, ciprofloxacin and amoxicillin), and three were anticonvulsives. Because dental prescription numbers were not available to the public, the real reporting rates for clindamycin and to a lesser extent for amoxicillin are presumably lower. CONCLUSIONS: The predominance of antibiotics among the reports of severe immediate and delayed-type drug hypersensitivity reactions is largely in accordance with literature although fluoroquinolones seem to be slightly overrepresented concerning anaphylactic reactions. The reader should be aware of the limitations of adverse drug reaction and prescription databases available to the public, and that over-the-counter drugs, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and drugs typically administered in hospitals could not be considered.

Saving the red baby: successful allogeneic cord blood transplantation in Omenn syndrome.

Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the treatment of choice for severe primary immunodeficiencies, but only has moderate prognosis in Omenn syndrome as it is complicated by highly activated Omenn T-cells resulting in delayed T-cell engraftment and a high rate of graft failure. A 6 1/2 months old patient with a previously unknown compound heterozygous defect within the RAG1 gene (R474C; R975W) underwent 8/10 HLA-matched cord blood transplantation after myeloablative conditioning. Immune reconstitution was impressive with T-, B- and NK-cells reaching the median of age-dependent reference values within twelve, four and two months respectively. With a continuous decrease of activated Omenn T-cells there was a steady increase of naive, probably thymus-derived T-cells. Polyclonal B-cell activation and hypergammaglobulinaemia disappeared with B-cell engraftment. This case emphasizes that, despite their naive status and HLA-barriers, cord blood T-cells were apparently able to achieve T-effector function resulting in the elimination of all activated Omenn T-cells.

Successful topical treatment of sorafenib-induced hand-foot skin reaction in a child with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Orally active kinase inhibitors such as Sorafenib are known to elicit cutaneous side effects in the majority of adult patients, whereas specific cutaneous complications of this agent have not been described in children so far. We here present the first pediatric case of Sorafenib-induced hand-foot-skin reaction and its successful topical therapy facilitating continuation of kinase inhibitor treatment.

Photodynamic therapy in the treatment of actinic keratosis.

The efficacy of photodynamic therapy (PDT) with 5-aminolevulinate and methyl aminolevulinate in the treatment of actinic keratosis has been demonstrated in a large number of clinical studies over the last several years. Here, we recapitulate the major findings, comparing the various photosensitizers, light sources and therapeutic regimens, and present a retrospective analysis of 142 own cases treated with 259 PDTs. In addition, we also discuss the value of PDT in comparison with cryotherapy or 5-fluorouracil. The efficacy and the low risk of side effects of PDT have resulted in a high patient preference in clinical trials.

Neonatal and infantile erythrodermas.

The term neonatal or infantile erythroderma designates a generalized erythema covering more than 90% of the body surface area of neonates and young infants. Erythrodermas are not rare in this age group and have been associated with more than 40 diseases of different degrees of severity. Regardless of the underlying illness, impending acute symptoms of an impaired epidermal barrier function (hypothermia, dehydration, sepsis) must be recognized and treated adequately. Most often patients have to be hospitalized for incubator care and, if necessary, intravenous rehydration and antibiotic therapy. Later a thorough diagnostic workup should be performed in cooperation with specialized centers in order to guarantee a precise diagnosis and the most effective treatment. In particular, potentially severe extracutaneous symptoms require rapid intervention and represent the main focus of this review.

Environmental factors as delusional contents in patients with schizophrenia.

In a series of 50 consecutive cases in the outpatients' unit of Environmental Medicine (UEM) at the University Hospital of Aachen, Germany, five patients with the diagnosis of schizophrenia presented delusions of being poisoned by environmental factors. This case report illustrates the clinical features of the paranoid type of schizophrenic psychoses. Schizophrenia represents an important differential diagnosis in the interdisciplinary diagnosis and management of health problems attributed to environmental factors.

Penetration of normal, damaged and diseased skin--an in vitro study on dendritic core-multishell nanotransporters.

A growing intended or accidental exposure to nanoparticles asks for the elucidation of potential toxicity linked to the penetration of normal and lesional skin. We studied the skin penetration of dye-tagged dendritic core-multishell (CMS) nanotransporters and of Nile red loaded CMS nanotransporters using fluorescence microscopy. Normal and stripped human skin ex vivo as well as normal reconstructed human skin and in vitro skin disease models served as test platforms. Nile red was delivered rapidly into the viable epidermis and dermis of normal skin, whereas the highly flexible CMS nanotransporters remained solely in the stratum corneum after 6h but penetrated into deeper skin layers after 24h exposure. Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy proved a stable dye-tag and revealed striking nanotransporter-skin interactions. The viable layers of stripped skin were penetrated more efficiently by dye-tagged CMS nanotransporters and the cargo compared to normal skin. Normal reconstructed human skin reflected the penetration of Nile red and CMS nanotransporters in human skin and both, the non-hyperkeratotic non-melanoma skin cancer and hyperkeratotic peeling skin disease models come along with altered absorption in the skin diseases.

Total serum IgE as a parameter to differentiate between intrinsic and extrinsic atopic dermatitis in children.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) has been sub-classified into extrinsic and intrinsic types according to the presence or not of allergen-specific IgE antibodies. Although total serum IgE levels are frequently elevated in AD, their potential to predict allergen-specific IgE (asIgE) has rare ly been studied. We investigated 103 children with AD and suspected allergen-specific sensitization. A thorough clinical examination, a structured medical history and total serum IgE and asIgE measurements were performed. Fifty-three male and 50 female patients, median age 35 months (range 3 months to 17 years), were recruited. Sixty-three percent of patients were asIgE positive, while 37% did not reveal such IgE antibodies; median total serum IgE levels were 224.0 kU/l (14-12,013 kU/l) and 25.2 kU/l (0-4352 kU/l), respectively. Associations of asIgE status with atopic co-morbidity and total serum IgE levels were statistically significant. At a cut-off total serum IgE level of 106 kU/l (sensitivity 68.7%; specificity 92.3%), positive and negative predicted values (93.6% and 64.3%, respectively) were determined. Clinical decision points predictive of positive asIgE results were identified in 90%, 95% and 99% of patients, respectively. Total serum IgE values were significantly associated with the asIgE status of investigated patients. However, these preliminary data warrant further large-scale investigations before total serum IgE levels can be regarded as a clinically useful parameter between patients with extrinsic atopic dermatitis and intrinsic atopic dermatitis.