Combination of fractional carbon dioxide laser with recombinant human collagen in periocular skin rejuvenation.

BACKGROUND: The most visible sign of facial aging is often seen in the periocular area. However, periocular rejuvenation remains challenging due to the particularity of periocular anatomic locations. AIMS: We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the fractional-ablative CO2 laser-facilitated recombinant human collagen permeation in periocular rejuvenation. PATIENTS/METHODS: This 3-month prospective single-blinded and self-controlled trial enrolled 26 patients with periocular aging who underwent the treatments of fractional-ablative CO2 laser along with laser-facilitated recombinant human collagen permeation. Following the treatments, the patients were quantitatively assessed by various periocular skin aging indices before and after the treatment and monitored for any related adverse events. RESULTS: The patients showed significant improvements with the periocular skin aging indices 3 months after the treatments, which were detailed with a 47.3% decrease in lower eyelid skin rhytids, a 41.4% decrease in the lower eyelid skin texture, a 35.0% decrease in the static crow's feet, a 29.3% decrease in the amount of upper eyelid laxity, and a 20.2% increase in the MRD1 as compared with baseline (p < 0.05). Moreover, total skin thickness under ultrasound was increased in both upper and lower eyelids (5.6% and 3.3%, p < 0.05, respectively). Moreover, six patients (23.1%, 6/26) had erythema for 2 weeks, and two (2/26, 7.7%) had mild hyperpigmentation for 3 months. CONCLUSIONS: Fractional-ablative CO2 laser combined with laser-facilitated recombinant human collagen permeation can be a safe and effective treatment for periocular rejuvenation.

Recalcitrant nodular scabies showing excellent response to tofacitinib: five case reports.

Scabies is a contagious skin condition caused by Sarcoptes scabiei, and it is always associated with an intense, unbearable, nocturnal deteriorating itch. Its presentations include classic burrows, erythema, pruritic papules, pustules, vesicles, and inflammatory nodules, with diffuse or localized distribution on the finger webs, wrist flexors, elbows, axillae, buttocks, genitalia, and breasts. Nodular scabies is an uncommon clinical variant of scabies. Its management is still challenging for some patients up to date, although topical, intralesional or systemic corticosteroids, topical calcineurin inhibitors, and crotamiton as well as cryotherapy alone or in different combinations are used. We here report five male patients of nodular scabies, aged between 14 and 25 years, who had classical scabies that had been cured by sulfur ointment for at least 4 weeks except for their itching nodules, and their residual pruritic nodules also failed in previous treatments including antihistamines, topical applying and intralesional injection of steroids as well as topical tacrolimus in different combinations before being recruited to this study. The patients were administered tofacitinib 5 mg, twice a day, which led to excellent and rapid improvement for both lesions and symptoms after 1-4 weeks of treatment, respectively, without any associations. During 6 months of follow-up, only one had re-infection of scabies associated with nodules that were cured by sulfur ointment and tofacitinib again. No adverse reaction was observed. The present results suggested that tofacitinib might be a potential agent for nodular scabies with excellent response.

Auricular erythermalgia showing excellent response to itraconazole: a case report.

Erythermalgia, a rare painful disorder, is characterized by recurrent pain attacking, warmth, and erythema that mainly involves the distal extremities. Red ear syndrome shares similar clinical features of erythermalgia afflicting the external ear with unilateral/bilateral distribution. The treatments of both diseases are still difficult without controlled therapeutics available up to date. A 12-year-old boy was referred because of 3 years of recurrent attacking of painful erythema and warmth that involved the ears alone, the episodes occurred several times daily with duration of dozens of minutes to hours for each flare. The symptoms could be relieved by cold water and triggered by heat stimuli as well as exciting and movement, and showed mild response to gabapentin, celecoxib, and topical lidocaine compounds in combination, but moderate to blocking injection of botulinum toxin to nervus auricularis magnus. However, systemic itraconazole 200 mg daily resulted in an excellent response after 5-week treatment, leading to milder erythema, warmth and burning sensation, shorter duration, and fewer relapses. The treatment continued for 6 months and then itraconazole was decreased to 100 mg daily for another 6 months until it was stopped, with maintenance of good conditions. In 3 months of follow-up after the treatment ceased, the patient had only 7 to 8 attacks over 10 days presenting as tolerable erythema that lasted for less than 10 min and relieved spontaneously, with absence of warmth and no need of treatment. We considered the patient to be a variant of erythermalgia rather than a red ear syndrome. The results showed that erythermalgia might involve the ears alone and itraconazole might be a potential agent for its treatment.

Recurrent Talaromyces marneffei Infection Presenting with Intestinal Obstruction in a Patient with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Talaromyces marneffei is an important opportunistic pathogen mainly afflicting the HIV-infected patients, in rare instance, it could cause infection in non-HIV-infected individuals. We report a 51-year-old Chinese woman who, with histories of SLE for 14 years and disseminated talaromycosis for 4 years, occurred partial intestinal obstruction that was demonstrated to be caused by Talaromyces marneffei infection. The randomly amplified polymorphic DNA results of paraffin-embedded tissues from both the present episode and the previous infection suggested that the present infection was a recurrent. The patient was performed excision of involved intestine and treated with oral itraconazole at a daily dose of 400 mg for 3 months, leading to an excellent response. However, she died with unknown reason more than a year later. We also reviewed the literature on Talaromyces marneffei infection associated with SLE as well as intestinal talaromycosis alone.

Hemorrhagic bulla: a rare presentation of scabies.

Scabies is a contagious skin disorder with multiple presentations, it can also cause nosocomial infection sometimes. Bullous scabies is its rare subtype with male predilection, and typically occurs in the elderly with a median age of 70 years. We herein report a 90-year-old man who was hospitalized in the ward presenting with generalized infection of scabies associated with hemorrhagic bullae on both feet and hands, and leading to a prevalence in the ward. All the lesions including the bullae had excellent response to 10% sulfur ointment alone. No relapse occurred in more than 9 months of follow-up.

Erythermalgia Involving the Face Alone: Two Case Reports.

Erythermalgia is a rare cutaneous disease characterized by episodic attacks of burning pain, erythema, and increased temperature. It primarily involves the extremities, with possible extensions to the ears, face, neck, and scrotum; in rare instances, it may afflict the ears, face, or the scrotum alone. Although various medications alone or in different combinations have been tried with significant variations in response, no recommended therapeutics have been established until very recently. This report presents two case histories of a 20-year-old and a 46-year-old woman, respectively, who displayed intermittent facial erythema associated with warmth and pain during the episodes and who presented normal between episodes. Both had good response to combinative treatments of systemic medication and topical lidocaine compounds. The younger was disease-free after more than 4 years of follow-up, and the older had recurrence after stopping the treatment. Conclusion: Erythermalgia may involve the face alone, and combinative approaches may be of choice for its treatment. Topical lidocaine compounds are considered to be a good option for palliative treatment.

Intradermal Growing Hair: Two Case Reports.

Hair growing inside the skin and burrowing in the uppermost dermis, previously termed as "ingrowing hair," is a rarely reported cutaneous disorder. Up to July 31, 2018, only five cases have been reported, all were male. The authors report two Chinese Han men, 26-year-old and 31-year-old respectively, presenting with progressive extending black lines inside the skin on the right mandibular angle and the neck respectively. The black lines were finally demonstrated as growing beard hairs. The 26-year-old man was cured after the hair was pulled out, whereas the 31-year-old patient had re-occurrence after the initial hair was extracted and was cured finally by destroying the individual beard follicle. The authors would prefer the term of "intradermal growing hair" to "ingrowing hair" when describing the condition of hair growing inside the skin and extending in the uppermost dermis. Pulling out the growing hair, and sometimes destroying the beard follicle, may be of choice for its treatment.

Diverse expression of TNF-α and CCL27 in serum and blister of Stevens-Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis.

BACKGROUND: The pathogenesis of Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS)/toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) is not fully understood. Our previous study reported that chemokine CCL27 was overexpressed in serum of SJS/TEN patients. The objective of this study was to investigate the levels of CCL27 and TNF-α in serum and blister fluid from patients with SJS/TEN during the acute stage or resolution phase. METHODS: A total of 27 patients with SJS/TEN and 39 healthy donors were recruited to the study. Serum and vesicular levels of CCL27 and TNF-α were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. RESULTS: Serum levels of CCL27 and TNF-α were significantly elevated in patients with SJS/TEN during the acute stage as compared to the resolution phase and also compared with levels observed in normal controls (P = 0.001/< 0.001; P = 0.012/< 0.001). Serum TNF-α levels were significantly higher in patients with SJS/TEN during the resolution phase compared with normal controls (P < 0.001). Serum CCL27 levels were positively correlated with TNF-α levels during the acute stage (rs = 0.660; P < 0.001). Blister fluid exhibited much lower CCL27 levels than serum did during the acute stage (P = 0.008). TNF-α levels were much higher in vesicles in contrast to serum from acute stage (P = 0.040) as well as serum from resolution phase (P = 0.029). CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrated roles of CCL27 and TNF-α in promoting the course of SJS/TEN. CCL27 may act early in the course of disease, via the circulation, whereas TNF-α acts throughout the course of disease, in skin lesions.

Thalidomide Improves Psoriasis-like Lesions and Inhibits Cutaneous VEGF Expression without Alteration of Microvessel Density in Imiquimod- induced Psoriatic Mouse Model.

BACKGROUND: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder of unknown etiology. Increasing evidence suggests that psoriasis is probably an angiogenesis-dependent disease. Thalidomide has been reported being able to inhibit the effects of fibroblast growth factor 2 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and inhibit tumour necrosis factor-alpha synthesis, and suppress tumour necrosis factor-induced nuclear factor-kappa B activation in Jurkat cells, resulting in suppression of proliferation inflammation, angiogenesis, and the immune system, which are related to the pathogenesis of psoriasis. OBJECTIVE: Our study evaluated the influence of thalidomide on the lesional alterations, VEGF expressions and angiogenesis in imiquimod-induced mouse model. METHODS: Balb/c female mice (n=48) 8-12 weeks of age were randomly divided into 6 groups including negative control (vaseline cream), positive control (5% imiquimod cream), and experimental groups including low-dose (10 mg/kg.d), moderate-dose (30 mg/kg.d) and high-dose thalidomide (85 mg/kg.d), and acitretin group (6 mg/kg.d). Serum levels of VEGF-A were quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. VEGF protein expression was measured by western blotting and the microvessel density by immunohistochemical staining. RESULTS: The total psoriasis area and severity index scores in the moderate- and high-dose thalidomide and acitretin groups decreased significantly (p<0.001 for each), and so were the total Baker's scores in the high-dose thalidomide (p=0.008) and acitretin groups (p=0.021). The mean thickness of the epidermis in the experimental and acitretin groups decreased significantly, respectively (p<0.001 for all); the acitretin group was the thinnest. The cutaneous VEGF protein levels down-expressed significantly in the moderate- and high-dose thalidomide groups (p<0.05 for both), while those in the low-dose thalidomide and acitretin did not (p>0.05 for both). There were no differences for serum VEGF-A levels and the density of microvessels among the positive and experimental groups. CONCLUSION: Thalidomide can improve the psoriasis-like lesions and inhibit the expression of cutaneous VEGF in imiquimod-induced psoriatic model with dose-dependence, however, it does not alter circulating VEGF-A levels and microvessel density in dermis.