No abstract

Sexually transmitted rectal infections are frequent and often asymptomatic among MSM. LGV prevalence is high in our country and there is increasing evidence of symptomless cases.

Psoriasis is a multi-systemic chronic inflammatory disease that affects about 1.5-3% of the general population, of which almost 20% suffer from a moderate-severe form. Those patients can be treated with a systemic agent and in case of scarce response or contraindications, they may require a biologic therapy, such as tumor necrosis factor or interleukin-12/23 inhibitors. When also these agents fail, clinicians face a true therapeutic challenge. We report a case series of multi-failure 16 patients, successfully treated with secukinumab, a human monoclonal antibody that selectively neutralizes interleukin-17 A and is recently approved for the treatment of plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis.

Dear Editor, SARS-Cov-2 infection has been associated with many dermatologic manifestations, both in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. 1-3 A 54-year-old Caucasian woman was referred to us because of the rapid-onset of multiple patches of alopecia on her scalp. The patient had been diagnosed with SARS-Cov-2 infection 2 months earlier, thanks to nasal and throat swabs and chest computer tomography. She had been treated for 7 days with hydroxychloroquine therapy, 200 mg twice a day, started 7 days after the onset of mild respiratory symptoms. At the time of our visit the patient was in good health condition and was apyretic. She had recovered from SARS-COv-2 infection 2 weeks before, according to two consecutive negative tests obtained by nasal and throat swabs. Physical examination revealed three asymptomatic patches of alopecia on the right temporo-parietal area of her scalp (Figure 1). The surface of the patches was smooth, without signs of inflammation, and pull test resulted positive from the edges of the patches. Dermatoscopy showed the presence of black dots, yellow dots and vellus hair, allowing the diagnosis of alopecia areata (AA) (Figure 2).

Our findings highlight the important role of systematic biopsies in diagnosing ulcerated tumors of the lower legs and indicate a high prevalence of large ulcerated basal cell carcinomas.