Joint complaints in psoriasis patients.

Four hundred and fifty-nine psoriasis patients seen at the Department of Dermatology, Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University, responded to a questionnaire concerning current or past joint complaints. Of these, 17% reported a previous diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis, and over 53% had a current or past history of arthralgias. Additional information on those patients reporting arthralgias focused on the cutaneous sites of involvement with psoriasis and which joints were most likely to be involved in patients with various types of arthritis. Previous treatments for skin involvement with psoriasis were more aggressive in those patients with a diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis. A significant proportion of patients presenting to dermatologists for treatment of psoriasis have joint complaints, and the percentage of patients with psoriatic arthritis is greater than generally appreciated by non-dermatologists.

DMSO potentiates aminonucleoside of puromycin nephrosis in rats.

Dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO), 3 g/kg body weight, administered daily by the intraperitoneal route, potentiated the proteinuria and formation of tubular casts in aminonucleoside of puromycin (PA) induced nephrosis in Sprague-Dawley rats. The effect was evident at 4 as well as 8-9 days following PA administration. In the absence of PA, DMSO did not induce proteinuria or cast formation. The mechanism by which DMSO enhanced proteinuria and cast formation is not known.