No abstract

The number and affinity of glucocorticoid binding sites in peripheral mononuclear leukocytes of patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) and healthy controls were determined under baseline conditions and after a defined oral glucocorticoid treatment. Patients with AD (n = 15) exhibited significantly more glucocorticoid receptors (GR) per cell than the control group (n = 22), while the GR affinity did not differ. Methylprednisolone treatment resulted in a significant reduction of the GR sites per cell in the steroid-treated control group (n = 10) in contrast to the patients. The dissociation constant was not affected by methylprednisolone treatment in either group. In view of the therapeutic efficiency of glucocorticoids in AD and findings of abnormal cAMP and cAMP-phosphodiesterase activity, the elevated GR concentrations in AD lend support to the hypothesis of a compensatory GR upregulation due to an insufficient action of endogenous cortisol or to altered cAMP-induced GR expression.

The therapeutic value of regular physical exercise for patients with atopic eczema (AE) and other chronic inflammatory dermatoses has not yet been investigated systematically. At our institution an adjuvant group sports programme for voluntary inpatients has been in place for 3 years. Using a standardized questionnaire we found positive psychological influences of this program on the patients' mood and psychosocial wellbeing. Since most dermatologists, however, regard sweating as detrimental for patients with AE, we studied the impact of regular sports activities on the skin condition of AE-patients otherwise subdued to usual dermatotherapy (yet without corticosteroids) by aid of a standardized symptomscore system. Thirty inpatients with AE participated regularly in the sports programme, another 30 inpatients with AE (the control group) did not. The skin condition improved similarly the two groups over the study period of about 3 weeks. Cutaneous thermoregulation (with one arm in a 41 degrees C water bath as thermic stimulus) was examined in patients with AE before and after the study period. While many AE patients initially showed paradoxical, i.e. decreasing, skin temperature in the contralateral arm, after 3 weeks of physical training most of the participants had normalized consensual, i.e. increased, temperature reaction to the same warmth exposure. The conclusion is drawn that regular sports may be of adjuvant therapeutic value in patients suffering from AE, except in the acute stages of the disease.

Summary. The effects of glucocorticoids administered in vivo and in vitro on lectin-induced proliferation of lymphocytes sampled from venous blood were investigated in patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) and in normal controis. Stimulation by concanavalin A (Con A), phytohaemagglutinin A (PHA) and pokeweed mitogen (PWM) in patients and controls did not differ significantly under baseline conditions. After in vivo administration of methylprednisolone the decline of Con A-induced blastogenesis of leucocytes was similar in both groups, whereas PHA stimulation caused a significant reduction in the controls only. In vitro addition of different dexamethasone concentrations had a pronounced suppressive effect on Con A-and PHAinduced blastogenesis in both groups, whereas PWM stimulation was unaffected. Pretreatment in vivo with methylprednisolone further decreased the suppression of the Con A and PHA lymphocyte proliferation rate by dexamethasone added in vitro in controls but not in patients. With regard to B-cell proliferation generated by PWM, no consistent glucocorticoid effect could be observed. The impaired effect on lymphocyte blastogenesis of glucocorticoids administered in vivo, in contrast to a normal in vitro reaction to dexamethasone, together with recent findings of an altered glucocorticoid receptor pharmacology in AD, points to a decreased biological in vivo efficiency of methylprednisolone in atopic dermatitis.

We report on a 31-year-old white woman, who was bitten in her right calf by a "spitting cobra" (Neia nigricollis) during a safari in Tansania. Minor initial systemic symptoms such as nausea and vomiting were followed by severe oedematous swelling of the extremity after 2-3 h and demarcation of a 2.75 x 2.75 in. area of necrotic skin. The patient returned to her home country, where 8 days after the snake-bite necrosectomy was performed. Antibiotics, anti-inflammatory agents and local therapy with hydrocolloidal wound dressings were administered. With this therapy the lesion healed completely with minor scarring within 5 months. A new Salmonella strain was isolated from the ground of the ulcer.