[Psoriasis and infestation with Malassezia]

Psoriasis is a chronic proliferative condition of the skin. Its accurate pathogenesis has not been known yet but interactions between genes and environmental factors have been implicated in its initiation. Although several reports have associated this lipophilic yeast with development of skin lesions in Psoriasis, the definite role of this lipophilic yeast in psoriasis is still undetermined. Our aim was to investigate the correlation between Malassezia and psoriasis. In this six-month's case-control study, a sample was obtained from cutaneous lesions of 50 psoriatic patients and 50 healthy volunteers as control group for evaluation of Malassezia infestation. Data were collected by use of questionnaires and analysed by SPSS software and using statistical tests of X[2] and Mann-whitney. There is no difference between Malassezia infestation in scalp lesions of psoriatic and healthy persons [P=0.86]. Malassezia infestation in psoriatic patients with scalp involvement was more than those without scalp involvement, but this relationship was not statistically significiant [P=0.069]. There is an inverse significant relationship between scalp infestation with Malassezia and chronicity of psoriasis [P=0.04]. Infestation with Malassezia in body skin of psoriatic patients was less than normal persons [P< 0.000]. It seems that Malassezia has an initiating role in inducing immune mechanism involved in pathogenesis of scalp psoriasis by Malassezia, but with chronicity and formation of dry and hyperkeratotic plaques, the environment will be inappropriate for Malassezia, so Malassezia infestation decreases with chronicity of disease

Effects of short - term hormone replacement therapy on cardiovascular risk factors

To determine the effect of hormone replacement therapy [HRT] on cardiac function as well as on plasma lipoprotein profile. The study was carried out on twenty healthy post menopausal women. All women received cyclic hormone replacement therapy in the form of oral estradiol valerate [2 mg/d] combined with medroxy progesterone acetate [MPA] [10 mg/d] during the last 10 days of each 21-days cycle. The treatment period was 6 months. Cardiac output, stroke volume, heart rate, end diastolic volume, end systolic volume, ejection fraction and left ventricular mass were measured by echocardiography before HRT and after 6 months course of HRT. Also, plasma lipoproteins were measured before and after 3 and 6 months of HRT. In the evaluation of left ventricular function, only peak atrial diastolic velocity was significantly reduced. As regard to plasma lipoprotein profile, total cholesterol, triglyceride, and low-density lipoprotein [LDL] cholesterol were significantly progressively reduced. Atherogenic indices of total cholesterol - to high density lipoprotein [HDL] cholesterol and LDL - to HDL cholesterols showed a significant progressive decline. Combined HRT influenced favorably left ventricular function as well as plasma lipoprotein profile