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Background: Topical photodynamic therapy (PDT) has shown good response rates in solar keratoses and superficial skin cancers. Objective: To investigate the efficiency and tolerance of PDT in refractory verrucae vulgares. Method: In an open pilot study, 6 patients were treated with 5-aminolevulinic acid-PDT and followed up for 2 months. Result: One patient showed a complete response, the other 5 patients were treatment failures. Conclusion: Topical PDT is probably not efficient in treating verrucae vulgares.

On-line recognition differs from off-line recognition in that additional information about the drawing order of the strokes is available. This temporal information makes it easier to recognize handwritten texts with an on-line recognition system. In this paper we present a method for the recove y of the stroke order from static handwritten images. The algorithm was tested by classifying the words of an off-lane database with a state-of-the-art on-line recognition system. On this database with 150 different words, written by four cooperative writers, a recognition rate of 97.4% was obtained.

Amiodarone can occasionally lead to a slate-coloured pigmentation in chronically UV-expose skin. A 63 year old patient presented with a pruritic bluish-purple pigmentation of the face 2 years after taking 400 mg of amiodarone daily for 2 years. During the 24 months after the dose was reduced to 200 mg daily, the pigmentation remained unchanged. Amiodarone pigmentation is caused by the UV-induced accumulation of lipofuscin in dermal macrophages, depending on both the daily dose and the duration of therapy. In the differential diagnosis, pigmentation caused by other drugs is the main consideration. Cessation of therapy eventually leads to complete normalization of skin colour.