Syphilis is a disease that is relatively easy to detect by appropriate serological tests, however, all laboratory results should be considered together with clinical data and sexual risk anamnesis. Syphilis is also easy to treat with BPG. A major concern about the supply of BPG in many European countries could threaten the efficacy of the policies of eradication of the disease in Europe.

Pellagra defines systemic disease as resulting from a marked cellular deficiency of niacin. It is characterized by 4 "D's": diarrhea, dermatitis, dementia, and death. Diagnosis of pellagra is difficult in the absence of the skin lesions, and is often facilitated by the presence of characteristic ones. The dermatitis begins as an erythema. Acute pellagra resembles sunburn in its first stages, but tanning occurs more slowly than typically in sunburn. Exacerbation follows re-exposure to sunlight. In this work we review the findings of this once mysterious disorder, one that still challenges clinicians world-wide.

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During a schedule of multiple exposures to ultraviolet B radiation (UVB, 280-320 nm), skin develops a reduced sensitivity, variously called tolerance, photoadaptation, accommodation or acclimatization. In this study we have investigated the development of tolerance in the normal skin of a group of psoriatic patients during the course of UVB therapy. Tolerance was assessed by phototests carried out on non-lesional skin as frequently as possible throughout the treatment. Maximum tolerance was developed by the group of individuals most sensitive to UVB, which was twice that of the least sensitive group. The minimal perceptible erythema dose (MPE) increased rapidly in the first 2 weeks (220% per week) and reached a plateau by the eighth week of 800% above the baseline MPE dose. For the more sensitive patients there was a further increase in sensitivity (decrease in MPE dose) after the ninth week of continuous treatment. Tolerance to UVB also involves pigmentation in the first few weeks, but in these patients there was no evidence of hyperpigmentation by the end of treatment. While epidermal hyperplasia is most likely to play a leading role in the development of tolerance to UV, there is no reason to expect this protection to decrease under conditions of continuous exposure. Thus, accommodation to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is not a monotonically increasing process but appears to alter the accepted reactions of human skin to UVR.

SummaryIn the last decade, significant advances have been achieved in the direct viewing of the skin. Non-invasive analysis of various skin diseases in vivo has become possible by special skin display devices, allowing the physician to view the structure and properties of the skin in greater detail than can be achieved by simple visual examination. We review the last 100 years of fluorescence imaging development from clinical observation to advanced spectral imaging, addressing the role of fluorescence diagnostics (FD) in modern dermatology as well as the detection of autofluorescence.

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By using a new standard for the reference skin (albino skin) we could more exactly compare melanin levels in different subjects. Our proposed melanin quantification angle α expresses the extent of the difference in melanin levels between the examined skin lesions. We successfully used this index to quantify the variations of melanin (progress of repigmentation) throughout different stages of treatment of the same lesion and also to objectively evaluate the final effect of the therapy. In the present study, we showed that the diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) may be suitable method to measure skin colour and the content of human skin melanin in vivo.

Summary UVB phototherapy was used to treat 60 psoriatic patients of skin type V. The treatment was effective and doses of UVB necessary to clear patients were compared with those used in similar trials performed elsewhere on patients of skin types II, III and IV. The results indicate that the doses were similar to those obtained by other authors.