Phototherapy and topical treatments for cutaneous graft vs. host disease in haematopoietic stem cell transplantation patients: a scoping review.

Skin is usually the first and most affected organ involved in graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), and treatment is still a clinical challenge. Although the need for skin-directed treatments such as physical treatments and topical medications are generally agreed on, what the gold standard treatment strategy should be remains open to debate. The aim of this scoping review was to synthesize the current knowledge on the topical and physical treatments of cutaneous GvHD in haematopoietic stem cell transplantation patients and to highlight the best evidence available so as to reduce the gap between 'what is known' and 'what is done' in the clinical practice. Twenty-eight studies were included in this qualitative synthesis. Photo-biomodulation with psoralen was not included in this review. Phototherapy (ultraviolet A or B or narrowband B) was the physical treatment most described in the literature in both acute GvHD and chronic GvHD. Topical calcineurin inhibitors such as tacrolimus ointment and pimecrolimus cream as well as corticosteroid creams such as clobetasol and triamcinolone are mainly used in case of chronic GvHD. In all of the studies included in the review, topical treatments were always associated with systemic therapy. None of the topical interventions identified in our review provided strong evidence supporting its use, and the topical approaches seemed to have an adjuvant role in the treatment of cutaneous GvHD.

[Postnatal variations in the electrophysiological characteristics of the mouse heart]. / Variazioni postnatali delle caratteristiche elettrofisiologiche del cuore di topo.

Electrocardiograms were recorded in 13 mice, from birth up to 57 days of age; during this period the heart rate, at rest, showed a marked increase (from 310 to 797 beats/min), occurring in two waves. Recordings of the intracellular electrical activity in the atria disclosed a different temperature dependence of the resting membrane potential, action potential duration and Vmax in the neonatal mouse as compared with the adult one. The results are consistent with the suggestion that a decrease of the 'slow inward' conductance/K+ outward conductance ratio still occurs during a postnatal period.