Bullous pemphigoid and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors: The importance of the pharmacotherapeutic history

A 97-year-old man with a history of type II diabetes mellitus was treated with oral antidiabetic agents. He went to the emergency department after the appearance of blister-like itchy lesions on the abdomen and extremities since 2 months. The examination revealed eczematous lesions on the back, abdomen and extremities along with tense blisters on an erythematous base and serous content (figure 1A). In the blood test carried out, 285?mg/dL glucose and 7.1% eosinophilia stood out, with no associated leucocytosis or other relevant findings. Positive glycosuria (+++) was observed in urinalysis without other alterations. A skin biopsy was performed for histological and immunofluorescence studies that confirmed the diagnosis of bullous pemphigoid (figure 1B–D). Given the poor control of autoimmune blistering disease, possible triggers were looked for and linagliptin intake could be associated with the appearance of skin lesions 1?month earlier. ..

Saturday night purpura: An uncommon presentation of exercise-induced vasculitis

Exercise-induced vasculitis (EIV) is a benign cutaneous vasculitis that affects healthy individuals. We report a case of EIV in a 15-year-old male patient with a striking clinical appearance triggered by a combination of prolonged standing and disco dancing in a warm environment. Pediatric dermatologists should be aware of this activity as a possible trigger of EIV, especially in teenagers

Lesiones cutáneas tipo perniosis durante la epidemia COVID-19

Desde la descripción de lesiones acroisquémicas asociadas a COVID-19 en la población pediátrica1 y su extensa difusión a través de medios de comunicación y redes sociales, son numerosas las asistencias diarias en consultas de pediatría y dermatología por estas lesiones. La paciente 1 del presente trabajo es una mujer de 10 años con lesiones cutáneas perniosiformes purpúricas de 7 días de evolución, que acude acompañada por su madre, quien presenta lesiones similares (fig. 1). Padre camionero en cuarentena por clínica de COVID-19. El paciente 2 es un varón de 16 años con lesiones cutáneas perniosiformes tipo eritema multiforme de 14 días de evolución (fig. 2). Ambos pacientes acudieron asintomáticos a la consulta y las pruebas para la detección de la infección por SARS-CoV-2 fueron negativas..

Dermatoscopia e impronta en la leishmaniasis cutánea

Niño de seis años de edad que presenta una lesión cutánea en mejilla izquierda de crecimiento progresivo de cuatro meses de evolución. Sus padres refieren el antecedente de una picadura de insecto en dicha localización durante un viaje a Marrakech (Marruecos) que realizaron hace cinco meses. A la exploración se aprecia una placa eritematosa de 1, 5 cm de diámetro con costra amarillenta central (fig. 1). La dermatoscopia de luz polarizada (DLP) reveló hallazgos compatibles con una infección cutánea por Leishmania spp. (fig. 2)..

VLBA imaging of radio-loud BAL QSOs

Broad Absorption Line Quasars (BAL QSOs) have been found to be associated with extremely compact radio sources. These reduced dimensions can be either due to projection effects or these objects might actually be intrinsically small. Exploring these two hypotheses is important to understand the nature and origin of the BAL phenomenon because orientation effects are an important discriminant between the different models proposed to explain this phenomenon. In this work we present VLBA observations of 5 BAL QSOs and discuss their pc-scale morpholog

The Cycad Genotoxin MAM Modulates Brain Cellular Pathways Involved in Neurodegenerative Disease and Cancer in a DNA Damage-Linked Manner

Methylazoxymethanol (MAM), the genotoxic metabolite of the cycad azoxyglucoside cycasin, induces genetic alterations in bacteria, yeast, plants, insects and mammalian cells, but adult nerve cells are thought to be unaffected. We show that the brains of adult C57BL6 wild-type mice treated with a single systemic dose of MAM acetate display DNA damage (O6-methyldeoxyguanosine lesions, O6-mG) that remains constant up to 7 days post-treatment. By contrast, MAM-treated mice lacking a functional gene encoding the DNA repair enzyme O6-mG DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) showed elevated O6-mG DNA damage starting at 48 hours post-treatment. The DNA damage was linked to changes in the expression of genes in cell-signaling pathways associated with cancer, human neurodegenerative disease, and neurodevelopmental disorders. These data are consistent with the established developmental neurotoxic and carcinogenic properties of MAM in rodents. They also support the hypothesis that early-life exposure to MAM-glucoside (cycasin) has an etiological association with a declining, prototypical neurodegenerative disease seen in Guam, Japan, and New Guinea populations that formerly used the neurotoxic cycad plant for food or medicine, or both. These findings suggest environmental genotoxins, specifically MAM, target common pathways involved in neurodegeneration and cancer, the outcome depending on whether the cell can divide (cancer) or not (neurodegeneration). Exposure to MAM-related environmental genotoxins may have relevance to the etiology of related tauopathies, notably, Alzheimer's disease

Wetlands for wastewater treatment and subsequent recycling of treated effluent : a review

Due to water scarcity challenges around the world, it is essential to think about non-conventional water resources to address the increased demand in clean freshwater. Environmental and public health problems may result from insufficient provision of sanitation and wastewater disposal facilities. Because of this, wastewater treatment and recycling methods will be vital to provide sufficient freshwater in the coming decades, since water resources are limited and more than 70% of water are consumed for irrigation purposes. Therefore, the application of treated wastewater for agricultural irrigation has much potential, especially when incorporating the reuse of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous, which are essential for plant production. Among the current treatment technologies applied in urban wastewater reuse for irrigation, wetlands were concluded to be the one of the most suitable ones in terms of pollutant removal and have advantages due to both low maintenance costs and required energy. Wetland behavior and efficiency concerning wastewater treatment is mainly linked to macrophyte composition, substrate, hydrology, surface loading rate, influent feeding mode, microorganism availability, and temperature. Constructed wetlands are very effective in removing organics and suspended solids, whereas the removal of nitrogen is relatively low, but could be improved by using a combination of various types of constructed wetlands meeting the irrigation reuse standards. The removal of phosphorus is usually low, unless special media with high sorption capacity are used. Pathogen removal from wetland effluent to meet irrigation reuse standards is a challenge unless supplementary lagoons or hybrid wetland systems are used