A double-blind controlled clinical trial was performed to evaluate the effect of oral zinc sulphate, 0.6 g daily, on acne vulgaris. Twenty patients received zinc sulphate tablets and 19 were given placebo tablets. Thirteen of the zinc group and 12 of the placebo group received their medication throughout a 12-week period, while the remaining patients were treated for 4 or 8 weeks. In all patients the numbers or papular and pustular acne lesions on the face and the back were significantly reduced, while larger infiltrates remained practically unaltered during the trial, which was performed from March through May 1975. No statistically significant difference in the improvement of the groups was demonstrable. Pretreatment serum zinc values, which were normal in all patients, rose significantly in the zinc group as well as in the control group, but the increase in the former was significantly higher. The negative therapeutical results might be attributable to the limited number of patients or related to the zinc dosage. Furthermore, the results might have been influenced by the unexplained rise in serum zinc values in the control group. A possible weak beneficial effect of zinc might also have been camouflaged by the seasonal variation in the severity of acne which was noted in this study.
The effect of orthostatic changes in vascular transmural pressure on blood flow in subcutaneous tissue was studied in 10 patients with the acrosclerotic type of generalized scleroderma. Blood flow was measured on the back of the hand by the local 133xenon washout technique. The blood flow remained constant when the hand was elevated 20 cm above the jugular notch, indicating that there is autoregulation of blood flow, When the hand was lowered 40 cm below by 50% observed in normals. Thus, intrinsic vascular reactions responsible for the autoregulator response are present, whereas the normal "vasoconstrictor response" to an increase in venous transmural pressure is almost abolished in tissues with sclerodermic changes. The abolition of the vasoconstrictor response is probably due to sympathetic neuropathy associated with the sclerodermic changes.
A 54-year-old woman had acquired hypertrichosis lanuginosa. She developed excessive growth of lanugo-like hair all over her body two years prior to the sudden appearance of a rapidly growing, localized, solid mammary tumor. Of 12 published cases, nine have been associated with an internal malignant neoplasm and obviously, as in the present case, the cutaneous symptoms may serve as a skin marker by preceding the tumor diagnosis for up to two years.
Blood flow was measured by the 133Xe technique in normal and corticosteroid-treated skin. Epicutaneous and intracutaneous methods of tracer application were compared in normal skin. The two labeling methods were equally suitable for measuring cutaneous blood flow provided calculations in both cases were based on a biexponential resolution of the wash-out curve in its cutaneous and subcutaneous components and provided the traumatic hyperemia phase was considered, when intracutaneous application of the tracer was used. Results were invalidated if calculations were based on initial slope of the wash-out curves.Topical application of beta-methasone valerate in a reduction in cutaneous blood flow as measured by the intracutaneous technique with curve resolution, whereas no effect could be demonstrated when calculations were based on the initial slopes of the curves. The 133Xe technique is a simple and reliable method for measuring cutaneous blood flow, which might prove useful in estimations of penetration ability and potency of topical corticosteroids.
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