Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0033774 (pruritus)
 14,546 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The Meeting "An Update on Chickenpox" (Florence, 19-3-1993) has contributed to verify, in the light of the most recent acquisitions, the new guidelines for a correct rationale in the diagnosis and therapy of chickenpox. The present availability of an effective specific antiviral therapy for chickenpox (acyclovir) leads to a careful selection of patients to be treated. The high incidence of chickenpox morbidity keeps long unaltered and, beyond the usually benign onset of the primary infection in the child, the severity of this pathology in particular subjects and situations at risk is to be certainly underlined. Treatment is suggested for cases of chickenpox contracted inside the family. Generally, boys are at higher risk. Adolescents and adults, usually with a lower incidence, report a much higher severity of the acute onset and complications. Another category to be certainly treated is the one--in constant increase--of immunocompromised subjects. In any case, acyclovir treatment improves the symptomatologic evolution (pruritus and fever) and duration of clinical course. Among the progenitors of acyclovir, Valacyclovir seems to have the best prospects of success for the immediate future of antiviral therapy.
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PMID:[Varicella: how and when to start antiviral treatment]. 834 Dec 23

Cutaneous infiltration by leukemic cells is uncommon and may be associated with progression of disease. The authors present the case of a 77-year-old female patient, referred to the dermatology clinic for red, erythematous, pruritic papules, which had suddenly appeared on her left hemithorax, along the C6 dermatome, with a 4-week duration. She had already been medicated with Valacyclovir and Acyclovir for 4 weeks, without clinical improvement. She also had a diagnosis of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL), type 2 diabetes mellitus, and multinodular goiter. Tzanck smear showed no multinucleated giant cells,and PCR testing for Varicella Zoster Virus (VZV) and Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) on skin biopsy was negative. Histopathology showed a typical B-CLL infiltrate (CD3+, CD20+) and cytogetic analysis was compatible with alterations seen in the bone marrow, confirming the diagnosis of cutaneous infiltration by B-CLL. The patient began chemotherapy with chlorambucil and intravenous human immunoglobulin, which resulted in total regression of the lesions as well as the pruritus. Even though lymphocytic infiltration of Herpes Simplex or Herpes Zoster scars is well documented, cutaneous infiltration with a zosteriform distribution without a previous episode of herpes is very rare. The therapeutic target should be the leukemia itself.
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PMID:Zosteriform B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia infiltration. 2197 Dec 74