Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0024141 (systemic lupus erythematosus)
 44,322 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Acne agminata (lupus miliaris disseminatus faciei), once regarded as a tuberculide, is a facial granulomatous disease still seen in young adults in Japan, despite a decrease in the incidence of tuberculosis. Although most lesions regress within a few years, even without treatment, disfiguring scars remain on the face. We have evaluated the efficacy of low dose oral prednisone therapy because, in the past, there has been no satisfactory therapy for this condition. We have treated four patients with acne agminata with prednisone, at first 10 mg daily for 2 weeks, decreasing to 5 mg daily for 3 months. This modest dosage was found to give an excellent result in three patients and a poor result in one whose treatment was started at a much later stage of the disease than in the others. Acne agminata can be cured without scar formation when oral steroids are started in an early phase of the disease.
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PMID:Oral prednisone in the treatment of acne agminata. 876 32

For a definitive diagnosis of cutaneous tuberculosis the demonstration of mycobacteria is essential, but this is generally not possible in skin lesions. Routinely available techniques have poor sensitivity and are time consuming, therefore, delaying the institution of timely therapy. The high sensitivity and speed of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the detection of infectious agents has prompted investigators to use this technique for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in body fluids such as cerebrospinal fluid or pleural fluid. In the present study, PCR was used to examine punch biopsy specimens from the affected skin of 10 patients with clinical diagnoses of tuberculosis verrucosa cutis, lupus vulgaris, scrofuloderma, papulonecrotic tuberculide and erythema induratum. A control group of 20 patients included individuals having skin manifestations with definite clinical diagnoses other than cutaneous tuberculosis, such as leprosy, fungal mycetoma, chronic bullous disease of childhood and pemphigus vulgaris. The PCR amplified products were dot hybridized with a probe which was random prime labelled with 32P. The results were compared with routine microbiological and histological findings. Among the test group, six of 10 (60%) were positive for M. tuberculosis by PCR, although their histopathology showed non-specific chronic inflammation with no definite diagnosis. Microbiological investigations, including acid-fast bacillus smear and culture, were positive in a single case of scrofuloderma. All patients in the control group were negative by PCR for M. tuberculosis. The data indicate that the combination of dot hybridization with PCR markedly increased the sensitivity and specificity of PCR. This may be a useful tool in the diagnosis of tuberculosis when conventional methods fail.
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PMID:Development of a polymerase chain reaction dot-blotting system for detecting cutaneous tuberculosis. 1065 97

Tuberculosis is still a significant problem in developing countries. Cutaneous forms of tuberculosis account for approximately 10% of all cases of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Cutaneous tuberculosis may be because of true infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis or because of tuberculids. Tuberculids are immunological reactions to haematogenously spread antigenic components of M. tuberculosis. True cutaneous tuberculosis may be because of inoculation or haematogenous spread of M. tuberculosis to the skin. Lupus vulgaris is the commonest form of true cutaneous tuberculosis. Other forms of true cutaneous tuberculosis are tuberculous chancre, tuberculosis verrucosa cutis, scrofuloderma, periorificial tuberculosis and miliary tuberculosis of the skin. Lupus vulgaris is usually chronic and progressive. It occurs in patients with moderate to high immunity against M. tuberculosis as evidenced by strongly positive tuberculin test. Long-standing cases of lupus vulgaris may be complicated by squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). We describe a patient who had undiagnosed lupus vulgaris for 35 years until she developed SCC on the lesion of lupus vulgaris.
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PMID:Lupus vulgaris with squamous cell carcinoma. 1800 18