Recent data suggest that childhood and adulthood stressors may play a significant role in the development of an autoimmune disease. The present study explores the relationship between psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and positive and negative life events during childhood and adulthood in psoriatic patients. Forty-five patients with psoriatic arthritis and 101 controls (patients with skin conditions considered to be "non-psychosomatic") were enrolled in the study. All participants completed a specific questionnaire measuring traumatic life experiences [Traumatic Antecedents Questionnaire (TAQ)]. The TAQ assesses positive personal experiences (competence and safety) and negative personal experiences (neglect, separation, secrets, emotional, physical and sexual abuse, trauma witnessing, other traumas and exposure to alcohol/drugs) from early childhood to adulthood. The patients with psoriatic arthritis exhibited lower mean scores of total positive experiences during late childhood (latency) as compared to the control group. Negative experiences during four developmental periods appeared more frequently in patients with psoriatic arthritis than in the controls. The most frequently reported negative experiences were neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, alcohol/drug abuse and other traumas. The present findings add evidence to the relationship between retrospectively reported childhood experiences and psoriatic arthritis. Furthermore, a high amount of reported emotional and physical abuse occurs in patients with psoriatic arthritis during latency and adolescence.

Multiple warts in a 32-year-old-man are reported that developed after tattooing and remaining exclusively confined to that area. The tattooing was done 2.5 years earlier by a professional tattoo artist. It was previously a lesion-free tattoo, but when damaged by sunburn developed multiple skin warts. The ability of a latent virus to induce warts after cutaneous ultraviolet exposure was discussed.

The aim of the study was to analyze the Microsporum canis infections in the Rijeka area, Croatia, observed between 1990 and 2001. A total of 724 cases of dermatophytosis caused by M. canis were diagnosed in 320 individuals with the tinea capitis and 404 with tinea corporis. The M. canis infections constituted 32.8% of all dermatophytes isolated during the study period.

The frequency of dermatomycoses as well as the spectrum of causative agents in the Rijeka area, northwestern part of Croatia, in the periods before and during the war (1990-1994) and in the postwar period (1995-1999) were analyzed. A total of 20 463 patients with clinically suspected dermatomycoses referred to the Department of Dermatovenerology, Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka, was examined. In the period from 1990 till 1994, 2462 samples were positive, compared with 2250 positive samples during the period from 1995 to 1999. The most frequently isolated dermatophytes were in both periods Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Microsporum canis, followed by Microsporum gypseum, Epidermophyton floccosum, Trichophyton verrucosum and in the first period T. rubrum. An intensive change in composition of the flora was observed in the postwar period, mainly connected to the migration of population from other regions to the Rijeka area. This was demonstrated by a disappearance of T. verrucosum and T. rubrum and by an eruptive occurrence of Trichophyton violaceum. This antropophilic species became third representative in the postwar period, followed by M. gypseum, and E. floccosum. Our data were compared with those obtained in the same area in previous studies, and with results obtained in other countries.