The use of special silk clothes may be useful in the management of AD in children.

We report here a new case of neutrophilic figurate erythema of infancy in a 1-year and 9-month-old white boy. Neutrophilic figurate erythema of infancy is a rare inflammatory dermatosis which is part of the figurate inflammatory dermatoses of infancy and is considered a variant of annular erythema of infancy. The disease is clinically characterized by annular erythematous lesions, sometimes with a polycyclic configuration, and histologically by a dermal neutrophilic infiltration with leukocytoclasia. Differential diagnosis mainly includes clear-cut severe diseases with a well-known etiology, such as neonatal lupus erythematosus and its variant erythema gyratum atrophicans transiens neonatale, erythema chronicum migrans and erythema marginatum rheumaticum, and diseases of unknown origin and with less clear limits, such as erythema annulare centrifugum and its variant familial annular erythema. Anamnesis, laboratory findings, clinical features, and histology allow the correct diagnosis and therefore, having excluded severe diseases, parents should be reassured as neutrophilic figurate erythema of infancy, as the annular erythema of infancy, is a benign disease, in most cases unassociated with other conditions and usually self-limiting over a few months, even though a chronic course may rarely occur. Our case was characterized by a chronic persistent course and by a complete resolution of the lesions only during febrile episodes.

Background: Ulcerous rectocolitis and Crohn’s disease are the best known forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Skin manifestations are not uncommon in IBD and may be divided into specific cutaneous signs, aspecific cutaneous signs, and cutaneous signs caused by drugs used for IBD therapy. The specific signs (fistulas, rhagades and ulcers) are the result of the diffusion of the intestinal inflammatory process into the skin. Aspecific cutaneous signs (stomatic aphthosis, erythema nodosum, pyoderma gangrenosum, Sweet’s syndrome, vasculitis, bullous diseases) are quite frequently found in those suffering from IBD, but also in apparently healthy subjects, and may sometimes be the first sign of the intestinal disease. Cutaneous manifestations due to drugs vary in clinical aspect and are the direct consequence of the therapies adopted, which in IBD patients can be quite numerous: steroids, immunosuppressants, 5-aminosalicylic acid, biological agents, antibiotics. Objective and Methods:Due to the frequent finding of cutaneous manifestations in patients affected by IBD, a collaboration was set up between the Dermatological Clinic of the University of Bologna and the Center for the Study of IBD of the same university hospital. The aim was to diagnose the cutaneous signs appearing during IBD and to establish their etiopathogenesis in order to assess whether they were the result of epiphenomena of the IBD or side effects of the therapies adopted. Results: The cutaneous manifestations we observed can be divided into three distinct groups: signs that were specific to the basic disease, aspecific signs and finally signs attributable to the drugs used for therapy. Particular attention was given to the aspecific signs and those consequential to therapy. The aspecific cutaneous signs seen in our clinic generally reflect those reported in the literature. The cutaneous manifestations due to drugs were further divided into three groups: rosacea, acneiform dermatitis and psoriasis-like dermatitis. The most notable aspect of our series is the high number of patients presenting psoriasiform-type dermatitides with a generally widespread diffusion. Conclusion: We would like to draw attention to the fact that all patients with psoriasis had been undergoing treatment with drugs inhibiting tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) as part of IBD therapy. In all cases, the cutaneous reaction started after the third or fourth infusion of the biological drug. Anti-TNF-α agents have also been successfully used to treat psoriasis in the last few years. The reason for this apparently paradoxical effect of the therapy is still unclear.

Background: Eating disorders are becoming an epidemic in Europe, particularly among young women, but European studies concerning this topic are few. In eating disorders, significant medical complications occur in all of the primary human organ systems, including the skin. Objective: The purpose of this study was to improve the knowledge of skin signs in anorexia nervosa (AN) and verify whether cutaneous differences exist between the restrictive type and the bulimic type. Methods: A noncontrolled clinical study was performed in 24 consecutive patients with the restrictive and the bulimic types of AN in order to verify whether the cutaneous signs are different in the two types. The dermatological examination included the entire skin, oral cavity, hair and nails, with attention to skin pathologies prior to the development of AN. Results: In all the patients, the most frequent skin manifestations were xerosis (58.3%), hair effluvium (50%), nail changes (45.8%), cheilitis (41.6%), acne (41.6%), gingivitis (33.3%), acrocyanosis (29%), diffuse hypertrichosis (25%), carotenoderma (20.8%), generalized pruritus (16.6%), hyperpigmentation (12.5%), striae distensae (12.5%), factitial dermatitis, seborrheic dermatitis (8.3%), poor wound healing, melasma and Russell’s sign (4.1%). In the patients with the bulimic type of AN, hair effluvium, acne, gingivitis, nail changes and generalized pruritus were more frequent than in the patients with the restrictive type. Russell’s sign and seborrheic dermatitis were exclusively detected in the bulimic type. Hyperpigmentation, striae distensae, factitial dermatitis, poor wound healing and melasma were exclusively observed in the restrictive type. Cheilitis, diffuse hypertrichosis and carotenoderma were more represented in the restrictive type. Two patients with restrictive type of AN were followed up for a period of 3 years. In both, xerosis, cheilitis, acrocyanosis, hyperpigmentation and acne improved in relation to the increase in BMI. Hair effluvium and diffuse hypertrichosis appeared not to be linked to this parameter. Conclusion: Skin changes are prevalent among patients with AN. Some changes seem to depend on the type of AN or to be linked to the BMI.

The purpose of our study was to identify the clinical characteristics, epidemiologic data and histologic features in 29 cases of syringoma with a duration of lesions prior to the observation between 1 and 25 years. Only one patient complained of moderate itching. In two cases the lesion was solitary, in another the papules formed a lichenified plaque. In six patients only the eyelids were involved and in two patients a symmetrical localization on the forearms was observed. The other 18 patients showed generalized syringoma, 16 with an eruptive onset, 6 of which were familial. One of our cases showed lesions mimicking urticaria pigmentosa and two patients were affected by Down's syndrome. In two cases, histopathology showed association between syringoma and a melanocytic naevus and in one patient with a solitary lesion a clear cell syringoma was observed.