Relationship between porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) and viral hepatitis

Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology March 1995

502 Pearls of wisdom

Abstracts from the literature Human herpesvirus 7: another roseola (exanthem subitum)

causal agent for

Tanaka K, Kondo T, Torigoe S, et al. J Pediatr 1994;125:1-5. Human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7) was originally isolated in 1990. In this article, two infants with typical roseola had HHV-7 rather than HHV-6 in their peripheral blood. In addition, serologic studies showed HHV-7 in 15 other patients.

Amy S. Paller, MD

COMMENT: Low-dose aspirin may be beneficial for chro-

nic leg ulcers. It is not known whether complete healing can occur.

Jefsy

P. Callen, MD

Relationship between porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) and viral hepatitis

TsukazakiN, Tanaka K, Irifune H, et al. J Dermato1 1994;21:411-4. Eradication of hepatitis C virus RNA after alpha-interferon therapy

Nomenclature

of systemic vasculitis

JennetteJC, Falk RJ, Andrassy K, et al. Arthritis Rheum 1994;37:187-92. This article reports the results of a consensus conference on vasculitis. These authors propose dividing the vasculitides into three basic categories: large, mediumsized, and small-vessel vasculitis. Specific divisions of the medium-sized vessel vasculitis are classic polyarteritis nodosa and Kawasaki disease. The small-vesselgroup includes Wegener’s granulomatosis, microscopic polyarteritis, Henoch-Schiinlein purpura, cryoglobulinemic vasculitis, and cutaneous leukocytoclastic vasculitis. In the ao companying editorial (pp. 18 l-6), J. T. Lie critiques the approach and suggests that this approach has little difference from previous proposals. COMMENT: Yet another imperfect classification system.

Jefsrey P. Callen, MD

Randomized trial venous leg ulcers

of oral

aspirin

for chronic

RomeoR, Pol S, BerthelotP, et al. Ann Intern Med 1994;121:276-7. Porphyria

cutanea tarda remission

SiegelLB, EberBB. [Letter] Ann Intern Med 1994; 121:308-9. These three articles are interrelated. The first presents two caseslinking hepatitis C virus infection with porphyria cutanea tarda. This occurrence has been documented in multiple reports. The second article clearly demonstrated that interferon alfa can eradicate the viral infeo tion. The third demonstrates the usefulness of interferon alfa therapy for a patient with porphyria cutanea tarda associated with hepatitis C virus infection. COMMENT: A new therapy may lead to a cure of porphy-

ria cutanea tarda in selected cases.

Jefsrey P. Callen, MD

Dietary supplementation with very long-chain n-3 fatty acids in patients with atopic dermatitis: a double-blind, multicenter study

Layton AM, IbbotsonSH, DaviesJA, et al. Lancet 1994;344:164-5.

Soyland E, Fink J, Rajka G. Br J Dermatol 1994;130:757-64.

Twenty patients were treated with aspirin (n = 10) or placebo (n = 10). The dosage of aspirin was 300 mg/day. The ulcers were of long duration (> 10 years). There was a statistically significant reduction in ulcer size in aspirintreated patients. Side effects were not noted in this 4-month trial. Few, if any, ulcers healed.

One hundred forty-five patients with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis received either 6 gm/day of concentrated n-3 fatty acids or corn oil in a randomized double-blind study lasting 4 months. Both groups of patients improved, but there was no significant difference between the two groups.