Background: Basal cell carcinoma is the most common malignant tumour of the skin worldwide. The objective was to find out the age and sex incidence of basal cell carcinoma in patients attending the outpatient department of dermatology and to find out the various clinical and histopathological features of basal cell carcinoma.Methods: It was a prospective observational study carried out in a tertiary care hospital, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India. Patients with clinical diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma were included in the study after thorough history, clinical examination, routine and special investigations like skin biopsy.Results: Out of 20 patients with basal cell carcinoma 6 were males and 14 were females with a male to female ratio of 1:2.33. Most commonly affected age group was 50-70 years (70%). Distribution of BCC in our study was confined to head and neck area. Most common morphological subtype encountered in this study was nodular/nodulo-ulcerative BCC (70%), followed by pigmented type (25%) and superficial BCC (5%). The most common histological variant observed in present study was nodular type (55%), followed by pigmented variant (25%), adenoid (5%), basisquamous (5%), superficial BCC (5%) and BCC with sebaceous differentiation (5%).Conclusions: This study highlights a paradoxically increasing trend of BCC with female predilection. Early detection and treatment of lesions are crucial to decrease the functional and cosmetic disfigurement and also this study highlights the importance of improving awareness among general practitioners, public health workers and general population.

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Allergic contact dermatitis is common dermatoses seen among patients attending dermatology clinics. Allergic contact dermatitis is due to delayed type of hypersensitivity reaction. The diagnosis of allergic contact dermatitis is made by patch testing. A positive reaction to a patch test commonly proves the cause of dermatitis.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> A retrospective study was conducted<strong> </strong>to estimate the incidence of various allergens among 150 patch test positive patients with allergic contact dermatitis who had attended the dermatology OPD in Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, Chennai, between October 2014 and September 2016. All the details regarding history, examination findings, investigations and patch test results were collected from case records, the data were tabulated and analysed.<strong></strong></p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Allergic contact dermatitis to cement was the commonest (44.7%), followed by nickel (10%) and plant antigens (9.3%). The commonest allergen to be tested positive was Potassium dichromate (82 cases), followed nickel (15 cases) and formaldehyde (8 cases). Most of the patients were in the age category between 41 and 50 years (47 cases– 31.33%). Male to female ratio was 2.41:1. 14 were atopic individuals (9.33%) by Hanifin and Rajka's criteria. Allergic contact dermatitis in 103 cases of our study were of occupational in origin (67%).</p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Avoidance of allergen and proper preventive measures in workplace and day to day activities will lead to significant decrease in the morbidity of the disease and improvement in quality of life in patients with allergic contact dermatitis. </p>

Background: Sexually transmitted diseases are prevalent throughout the world. Sexually transmitted diseases (STD) play a major role in the transmission of HIV infection. The risk of acquiring HIV infection in non-ulcerative STD is 3 to 5 times more than that in persons without any sexually transmitted infections. One of the main non-ulcerative STD is gonorrhoea. The relative incidence of gonococcal infections is about 10 to 13% of total sexually transmitted infections in STD clinics. Aims and objectives was to identify gonococcal infection in patients attending the STD clinic and associated sexually transmitted infections and to study the antimicrobial susceptibility of gonococcus and to modify the disease intervention strategies.Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in our institute of venereology, government general hospital and madras medical college, Chennai-03, Tamil Nadu, India. 43 patients with gram stained smear or culture positive for gonococcus who attended the institute from February 2013 to September 2014 were taken into the study. All the details were collected from the case records of the patients. The antibiotic sensitivity testing in N. gonorrhoeae had been done by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Screening for other sexually transmitted diseases had been done and were treated according to the institute guidelines.Results: Specimens from 43 patients (40 male, 3 females) had been collected. 40 specimens were found to be culture positive. Antibiotic sensitivity tests were carried out on those 40 isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae obtained in pure culture. 70% of isolates were resistant to penicillin and 30% were less sensitive to it. 52.5% of the isolates were PPNG. 57.5% of isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin and 42.5% were less sensitive to it. 7.5% were resistant to ceftriaxone, 12.5% were resistant to cefixime and 15% were resistant to spectinomycin. All the isolates were sensitive to Azithromycin. Three male patients had HIV (6.9%), three had syphilis and one had genital wart. One female patient had trichomoniasis.Conclusions: The results of the study indicate that multidrug resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae is prevalent in this region. Associated STDs must be investigated to prevent the transmission of HIV and further complications. The need for establishing a national surveillance programme for antibiotic resistance becomes clear with this study.

Background: This study was done to determine the epidemiological aspects of stasis eczema and the association of various risk factors of the disease in the local population.Methods: This cross-sectional study was done at a tertiary hospital in southern India over a period of 1 year. Epidemiological and clinical data of stasis dermatitis patients above 20 years of age were recorded. Data was tabulated and analyzed using Microsoft excel software.Results: Of the study population of 120 prevalence is found to be highest in the age group of 50 to 60 years (42.5%) and males are more commonly affected. Occupation involving prolonged standing or sitting and lack of exercise activity is found to be a significant risk factor. The commonest skin finding in present study is eczema (80%). The most common complication was ulcer which was seen in 12.5% of our patients. Reticular veins are the most common dilated veins seen in our patients. About 70% of patients in present study fall under C4a stage of CEAP classification. About one half of symptomatic patients in present study (53.3%) had no radiological evidence of incompetent veins. Among patients with valvular incompetence, perforator veins were most commonly found to be incompetent (62.5%) followed by involvement of the saphenous venous system (23.2%).Conclusions: The study confirms the importance of environmental factors in the development of stasis eczema. There is a ten-fold higher prevalence of the disease in men in our population compared to previous studies which invariably reports a female preponderance.