(Fig. 1), abundant, very thick, reddish, curly hair which was not easily combed. The hair appeared structurally normal when observed through a scanning microscope; its stress-strain features were not tested. The girl had a small face with maxillary hypoplasia and a small triangular mouth, lateral hypoplasia of the eyebrows; she had lost her eyelashes and suffered from epiphora caused by aplasia of the lacrimal canaliculi. Teeth were normal as far as number and age of eruption were concerned, but appeared small and grey (enamel hypoplasia). The nose was narrow with hypoplastic alae nasi and a bulbous tip. Finger and toenails were small, narrow, and dysplastic. Both feet had partial cutaneous syndactyly between second and third toes and clinodactyly of the third toes. No finger-tip ridges were visible; the dermatoglyphic examination showed generalised flattening of the crests which were also partially dissociated. Ac hypothenar patterns in both hands and a high axial triradius (t' left, t" right) were also present. According to our evaluation the number of sweat pores on the surface of epidermal ridges was normal (c. 20/cm) although the features described made it difficult to perform an accurate count with a stereomicroscope.3 (According on 11 April 2019 by guest. Protected by copyright.

The favorable results obtained by other authors with polichemotherapy encouraged us to employ therapeutic scheme using a combination of 4 drugs. Treatment envolved the administration of 300 mg/mz cyclophosphamide, 350 mg/m2 5-fluorouracil, 10 mg/mw2 methotrexate i.v. on alternate days 6-8 times, and 15 mg bleomycin on alternate days until a total dose of 150-200 mg is reached. Thirty-five out of 37 patients treated with this protocol (30 previously treated and 5 not) qualified for analysis; the site of the neoplasm, mostly squamous cell carcinoma, was different; for the most part it was in the larynx (18/35) and the oral cavity (10/35). Complete remission was achieved in 9/35 patients (25.7%), varying from 5 to 33 months (median 22); partial remission was achieved in 15/35 cases (42.8%), varying from 1 to 14 months (median 3); and there was no success in 11/35 cases (31.5%). Overall, a total remission greater than 50% was observed in 24/35 patients (68.5%). The most serious side effects both ascribed to BLM were observed in the central nervous system (increasing drowsiness and coma) and the lung. This study has shown that in the ultra head and neck malignancies medical treatment can achieve satisfactory results.

After discussing the classification of the Actinomycétales, the authors give a detailed description of the epidemiology and particularly of the clinical features of cutaneous diseases induced by genera such as Actinomyces, Norcardia and Streptomyces. Histopathological and immunological studies, together with laboratory and differential diagnostics, are also examined. In the last section, present therapeutic treatments are briefly outlined.

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