Acta dermato-venereologica
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Acta Derm. Venereol. · May 1996
Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical TrialTreatment of ischaemic digital ulcers and prevention of gangrene with intravenous iloprost in systemic sclerosis.
Twelve patients with systemic sclerosis were treated with intravenous infusions of the prostacyclin-stable analogue iloprost 0.5-2.0 ng/kg/min for 6 h from 8 to 13 days. Imminent gangrene was stopped in 2 patients and followed by healing. In 4 of 6 patients iloprost led to complete healing of ischaemic ulcers and in the remaining 2 patients to partial healing. ⋯ Three of the 6 patients with healing ulcers, however, showed a pronounced decrease in plasma endothelin. Iloprost appears useful as a treatment of imminent gangrene and ischaemic ulcers in systemic sclerosis. This reparatory capacity could also be of a more general importance in therapy of this disease.
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Acta Derm. Venereol. · Mar 1996
Occurrence and distribution of peptidergic nerve fibers in skin biopsies from patients with systemic sclerosis.
Systemic sclerosis is characterized by vascular dysfunction. Itch is sometimes present in early stages of the disease. This prompted us to study the innervation of the skin by immunocytochemistry. ⋯ In the patients the density of nerve fibers (measured semiquantitatively) stained by the panneuronal marker was lower in affected than in unaffected skin (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in peptidergic innervation between patients and controls. However, there was a tendency to higher density of neuropeptide Y-positive nerve fibers in the forearm skin in 6 to 10 patients, as compared to only 1 of 10 healthy controls.
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Acta Derm. Venereol. · Mar 1996
Review Case ReportsA case of actinic granuloma associated with periumbilical perforating pseudoxanthoma elasticum.
We report an unusual case of actinic granuloma of the face and periumbilical perforating pseudoxanthoma elasticum located superior to the umbilicus in a 57-year-old Korean woman. Histopathologically, these two dermatoses have a similar degeneration of elastic fibers, but they show different host reactions to the altered elastic fibers. In the actinic granuloma, actinically damaged elastic fibers were followed by granulomatous infiltration on the sun-exposed area, while in the perforating pseudoxanthoma elasticum, the altered elastic fibers induced a foreign body reaction, with subsequent transepidermal elimination. This is the first case report showing both actinic granuloma and periumbilical perforating pseudoxanthoma elasticum in the same patient, which suggests that the basic mechanism eliciting these dermatoses is similar.