The importance of disease associations and concomitant therapy for the long-term management of psoriasis patients

It is well established that several inflammatory-type conditions, such as arthritis, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and irritable bowel disease exist comorbidly and at an increased incidence in patients with psoriasis. Psoriasis and other associated diseases are thought to share common inflammatory pathways. Conditions such as these, with similar pathogenic mechanisms involving cytokine dysregulation, are referred to as immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs). Considerable evidence for the genetic basis of cormobidities in psoriasis exists. The WHO has reported that the occurrence of chronic diseases, including IMIDs, are a rising global burden. In addition, conditions linked with psoriasis have been associated with increasing rates of considerable morbidity and mortality. The presence of comorbid conditions in psoriasis patients has important implications for clinical management. QoL, direct health care expenditures and pharmacokinetics of concomitant therapies are impacted by the presence of comorbid conditions. For example, methotrexate is contraindicated in hepatic impairment, while patients on ciclosporin should be monitored for kidney function. In addition, some agents, such as beta blockers, lithium, synthetic antimalarial drugs, NSAIDs and tetracycline antibiotics, have been implicated in the initiation or exacerbation of psoriasis. Consequently, collaboration between physicians in different specialties is essential to ensuring that psoriasis treatment benefits the patient without exacerbating associated conditions

High-Temperature Electronic Materials: Silicon Carbide and Diamond

The physical and chemical properties of wide-band-gap semiconductors make these materials an ideal wide bandgapsemiconductor choice for device fabrication for applications in many different areas, e.g. light emitters, high-temperature and high-power electronics, high-power microwave devices, micro-electromechanical system (MEM) technology, and substrates for semiconductor preparation. These semiconductors have micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) been recognized for several decades as being suitable for these applications, but until recently the low material quality has not allowed the fabrication of high-quality devices. In this material quality chapter, we review the wide-band-gap semiconductors, silicon carbide and diamond. Silicon carbide electronics is advancing from the research stage to commercial production. The commercial availability of single-crystal SiC substrates during the early 1990s gave rise to intense activity in the development of silicon carbide devices. The commercialization started with the release of blue light-emitting diode (LED). The recent release of high-power Schottky diodes was a further demonstration of the progress made towards defect-free SiC substrates. Diamond has superior physical and chemical properties. Silicon-carbide- and diamond-based diamondsilicon carbide (SiC) electronics are at different stages of development. The preparation of high-quality single-crystal substrates of wafer size has allowed recent significant progress in the fabrication of several types of devices, and the development has reached many important milestones. However, high-temperature studies are still scarce, and diamond-based electronics is still in its infancy