Education continuum in Canadian dermatology.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J P DesGroseilliers.
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Topical corticosteroids are widely used for the treatment of dermatoses in Canada. The effects of the various nontherapeutic components of these formulations are less well known than those of the active ingredients and may cause adverse reactions. Information on the components is fragmentary and is scattered throughout the literature. We have attempted to consolidate this information into one source. Recent provincial legislation requiring the generic substitution of interchangeable products and the nondisclosure of all ingredients in product labelling hinder the search for an excipient that has caused an adverse reaction. Practitioner participation in the Cutaneous Adverse Reaction Registry of the Canadian Dermatology Association will identify sensitizing excipients and will support efforts by the profession to obtain more effective and safer products.
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This report describes a computerized database-management system designed to allow users to retrieve and report information on the curriculum of an undergraduate pathophysiology course. With the system the user can locate where and in what context a topic is covered in the course and can answer queries and prepare reports concerning, for example, format and duration of sessions, teaching aids used and instructors. The system is a unique tool that can be used to optimize course structure and content. It can easily be expanded to include other undergraduate medical courses, and the techniques can be applied to other disciplines.
A 48-year-old man presented with an itchy rash that resembled superficial burns or cane marks on his left forearm; similar lesions had appeared every summer for 5 years. Poison ivy dermatitis had been the initial diagnosis, but the patient knew that this plant was absent from his well tended garden. A visit to the garden revealed the gas plant Dictamnus albus, and occlusive patch testing with leaf cuttings produced a reaction after the skin was exposed to sunlight. Gas plant phytophotodermatitis was diagnosed.
A study of 138 patients with psoriasis--74 with psoriasis alone and 64 with psoriatic arthritis--revealed a significantly increased frequency of the HLA antigens A1, A28, B13, DR7 and MT3 in those with psoriasis alone and of Bw39 in those with psoriatic arthritis. The frequency of B17 was higher in both patient groups than in a control group of healthy individuals. The frequency of DRw6 was slightly higher in the patients with psoriasis alone (17.8%) than in the controls (4.7%), and that of DR7 was higher in the patients with psoriatic arthritis (52.9%) than in the controls (32.6%). Elevated levels of serum IgG and IgA along with positive results of tests for antinuclear antibody or rheumatoid factor or both were present in less than a tenth of the patients with psoriatic rash alone and in up to a third of those with psoriatic arthritis. Psoriatic arthritis was found to be less likely to develop in patients with purely guttate psoriasis than in those with other types of psoriasis. Clinical subtypes of psoriatic rash or psoriatic arthritis were not associated with the presence of particular HLA antigens.
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Twenty-four patients with psoriasis were treated with orally administered 8-methoxypsoralen followed by exposure to high-intensity long-wavelength ultraviolet radiation (PUVA) at a psoriasis day care centre. Among the 20 with plaque type psoriasis the condition cleared in 13 (65%), after a mean of 20.7 treatment sessions, and improved but failed to clear in 4 (20%); the treatment failed in the other 3 (15%). The other four patients had erythrodermic, pustular or inflammatory psoriasis, and all failed to respond to PUVA therapy. Factors to be considered in patient selection for this form of therapy are the type of psoriasis, the patient's skin type and th proportion of the body surface area involved.
At a psoriasis day care centre 200 patients were treated with an ambulatory Goeckerman regimen, 25 of them twice, because of recurrence. This treatment consists of the application of a coal tar preparation at home at bedtime, followed the next day by exposure to high-intensity short wavelength ultraviolet radiation (UVB) at the centre. Treatment was given 5 days a week for 1 month. The psoriasis cleared in 86% of the patients after a mean of 21.6 UVB treatment sessions. The mean length of remission was 5.1 months, but at the time of follow-up 15 patients were still free of psoriasis. Compliance with the regimen was good to excellent in 94% of the patients. In our hands ambulatory treatment of psoriasis is much less expensive than hospital treatment and gives better results than photochemotherapy.
Improvements in surgical techniques and prosthetic devices and the establishment of prosthetic clinics have altered the outlook for the amputee. A cooperative effect on the part of professionals looking after amputee patients, as carried out in these clinics, offers the best means of recognition and treatment of difficulties as they arise. Until the "bionic man" becomes a reality, amputees will continue to have skin problems. In describing a number of illustrative cases, we have attempted to: (a) renew interest in these problems; (b) demonstrate the value of the group approach; and (c) encourage the participation of interested dermatologists in the prosthetic clinic team to facilitate earlier recognition and treatment of troublesome skin disorders in the amputee.
Pellagra due to malnutrition occurred in an Ottawa women in 1973. She was given a normal diet with supplements of riboflavin, thiamine, niacin and ascorbic acid. The clinical response was striking. Although pellagra is still common in some parts of the world, it is now rare in North America. The disease may occur secondary to malnutrition or malabsorption; inborn errors of metabolism or transport, as in Hartnup disease; deviation of precursors of niacin, as in carcinoid syndrome; or competitive inhibition of niacin incorporation into nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide, as with administration of isoniazid.
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