Objective. To assess the efficacy of a low-dose oral isotretinoin in the treatment of plane warts. Patients and Methods. Thirty-one patients with recalcitrant facial plane warts were enrolled. A cumulative dose of 30 mg/kg for two months of treatment was calculated; this was equal to a mean of 0.5 mg/kg/day. Each patient was seen every two weeks during the treatment period. Response to treatment was either complete or no response. Patients with complete response were followed up monthly for four months to record the relapse rate. Results. Twenty-six patients completed the study; their ages range from 5 to 35 with a mean ± SD 15.28 ± 8.51 years. Fifteen (57.69%) patients were females and eleven (42.30%) were males. Nineteen (73.07%) patients showed complete response and seven (26.92%) patients showed no response at the end of two months of therapy. The difference was statistically significant; P value <0.0001. Fifteen (78.94%) out of nineteen patients, who had complete response, were still free from warts at the end of four-month followup. Conclusion. Oral isotretinoin is effective in the treatment of recalcitrant facial plane warts.

Background. Chronic urticaria is defined as urticaria persisting daily for more than six weeks. A significant number of patients had autoimmune basis where autologous serum skin test is widely used for detection of chronic autoimmune urticaria. Objectives. To estimate the frequency of autoimmune urticarial in Iraqi patients utilizing the autologous serum skin test and to evaluate its results with the variable clinical features of chronic idiopathic urticaria. Methods. In this prospective study, 54 patients with chronic idiopathic urticaria were investigated with autologous serum skin test where its results were examined with the different clinical parameters of chronic autoimmune urticaria. Results. Twenty two patients (40.7%) out of 54 patients with chronic idiopathic urticarial had positive autologous serum skin test. Statistical analysis of the clinical variables did not show a significant difference between patients with positive and negative autologous serum skin test except for the distribution of wheals on the face and extremities which was significantly associated with positive autologous serum skin test results (P value 0.004). Conclusion. Autologous serum skin test is a simple, office-based test for detecting chronic autoimmune urticaria patients who have no distinctive clinical features differentiating them from chronic idiopathic urticaria patients.

Combination of NBUVB plus MTX provided rapid improvement with less cumulative doses of both therapies compared with each one alone in the treatment of psoriasis.

The combined treatment of chemical peeling and dermabrasion of the face been widely accepted since its introduction in 1972 by Dupont and Horton. 1 Trichloroacetic acid (TCA) has been used extensively by dermatologists and plastic surgeons for many years. A 10-25 percent solution is used for light peeling; it is safe as its systemic toxicity is less than that of phenol. This peeling is equivalent to a mild sun burn with mild skin erythema for 2-3 days and light exfoliation at 3-5 days and can be repeated 1 week later but it barely penetrates beyond the epidermis. For this reason, a combination of TCA with other treatments such as dermabrasion has been proposed as an effective treatment for acne scars and as a way to potentiate the effect of TCA to achieve a deeper peel. 2 Manual dermasanding is a procedure of skin abrasion using sterile sand paper. 3,4 It removes the epidermis to the mid reticular dermis along with the outer portion of the skin adnexia. Re-epithelialization takes place from the residual portion of the adnexia. 5 It has several advantages over classical dermabrasion as it is simpler and less costly, more readily accessible, and safer with no blood splatter or aerolized particles that can infect the staff. 6,7

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