Exfoliative erythroderma.

Exfoliative erythroderma refers to the skin that is diffusely red and inflamed with varying degrees and types of scaling. There are many causes of erythroderma, but the most common are exacerbations of an underlying skin disease, drug reactions and underlying malignancies. Erythroderma is a rare, potentially serious skin condition. Protein loss in the form of desquamation and exudation is significant, resulting in hypoproteinemia. Usually more than one skin biopsy should be done. Biopsy analysis is important to rule out cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Patients should be carefully evaluated for underlying disease. Erythroderma can represent a serious medical threat to the patient, and may require hospitalization. Various forms of exfoliative erythroderma are presented, considering the etiopathogenesis, physical findings, differential diagnosis and treatment.

Effective therapy of transected quadriceps muscle in rat: Gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157.

We report complete transection of major muscle and the systemic peptide treatment that induces healing of quadriceps muscle promptly and then maintains the healing with functional restoration. Initially, stable gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157 (GEPPPGKPADDAGLV, M.W. 1419, PL-10, PLD-116, PL 14736 Pliva, Croatia; in trials for inflammatory bowel disease; wound treatment; no toxicity reported; effective alone without carrier) also superiorly accelerates the healing of transected Achilles tendon. Regularly, quadriceps muscle completely transected transversely 1.0 cm proximal to patella presents a definitive defect that cannot be compensated in rat. BPC 157 (10 microg, 10 ng, 10 pg/kg) is given intraperitoneally, once daily; the first application 30 min posttransection, the final 24 h before sacrifice. It consistently improves muscle healing throughout the whole 72-day period. Improved are: (i) biomechanic (load of failure increased); (ii) function (walking recovery and extensor postural thrust/motor function index returned toward normal healthy values); (iii) microscopy/immunochemistry [i.e., mostly muscle fibers connect muscle segments; absent gap; significant desmin positivity for ongoing regeneration of muscle; larger myofibril diameters on both sides, distal and proximal (normal healthy rat-values reached)]; (iv) macroscopic presentation (stumps connected; subsequently, atrophy markedly attenuated; finally, presentation close to normal noninjured muscle, no postsurgery leg contracture). Thus, posttransection healing-consistently improved-may suggest this peptide therapeutic application in muscle disorders.