Dermatology News

Ixekizumab was associated with superior efficacy outcomes compared to adalimumab in a cohort of DMARD-naive patients with active psoriatic arthritis, according to findings presented at the EULAR Annual Congress.

Amgen is currently embroiled in two pivotal court cases surrounding patents for its bestselling etanercept product that could protect it from competition in the United States for another decade.

May is Mediterranean Diet Month, according to the American Diabetes Association’s Facebook page.

CLEVELAND — Patients with rosacea, livedoid vasculopathy and allergic contact dermatitis present with a multitude of dermatologic symptoms that rheumatologists can easily misdiagnose as rheumatic diseases, according to Anthony Fernandez, MD, PhD, of the Cleveland Clinic.

A 16-year-old male presented with a few fluid-filled lesions (vesicles) on his right popliteal area, accompanied by significant pruritus. As the patient continued scratching the area, new lesions continued to appear. After two visits to the primary’s office, two courses of oral antibiotics and one ED visit, he was admitted to the hospital for IV antibiotics for a presumed infection. The patient was previously healthy, with no underlying chronic or acute diseases, and he had no fever. He is a high school athlete, who was running track when this condition started. He spends a lot of time in the grass stretching prior to his track workouts. He denied any injury to the area, and did not recall any unusual insect bites. His exam was that of a healthy 16-year-old male, with the only abnormal finding being this unusual area of mild-to-moderate diffuse erythema, with some patches of lesions containing small pustules or vesicles, which initially appeared to resemble “kissing lesions,” as shown in Figure 1. Within a few days, these popliteal lesions progressed to more severe, fluid-filled lesions, with some drainage of serosanguinous fluid (Figure 2). The patient also had some discrete, smaller lesions appearing on various other parts of his body (Figures 3 and 4).

DESTIN, Fla. — In a session here at Congress of Clinical Rheumatology, Joseph F. Merola, MD, MMSc, of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, shared the dermatology approach to cutaneous lupus erythematosus, as well as valuable skin elements of dermatomyositis.

Psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis severely disrupt patients’ ability to function day-to-day as well as their psycholsocial well-being, with many patients carrying unmet expectations regarding treatment efficacy, according to recent findings in Arthritis Care & Research.

The FDA has approved the second biosimilar to etanercept, etanercept-ykro, for all eligible indications of the biologic product, according to an FDA press release.

In myofibroma and myofibromatosis, researchers found that gain-of-function mutations of PDGFRB only affect children, according to a retrospective study in JAMA Dermatology.

A 6-year-old, previously healthy male, with no past skin disorders or infections, presents with an unusual, progressive cluster of pruritic lesions on the posterior thigh and popliteal areas of his right leg. The area has been damaged by persistent scratching due to the pruritus. The problem was thought to have started with numerous mosquito bites about 4 weeks earlier. The patient has been seen several times with a variety of anti-infective therapies prescribed, including topical mupirocin, oral trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, clindamycin, cephalexin, acyclovir and even one dose of intramuscular ceftriaxone, none of which seem to have had any impact on the lesions, which included early blistering, followed by some crusting, followed by raw, weeping erosions that ultimately dried up. It is likely that scratching may have significantly altered the course. The patient was never sick or febrile, and no other members of the family or close contacts have had similar problems.