Clinical and histopathological features of secondary syphilis.

Fifty-four patients with secondary syphilis were studied in regard to the clinical manifestations, response to treatment and histopathology of the skin lesions. The correlation between the skin lesions and histopathology, between the duration of skin lesions and VDRL titer, between type of skin lesions and VDRL titer were also determined. The clinical manifestations varied from macular, maculopapular, papular, papulosquamous and urticarial lesions. The hair loss usually occurred on the scalp, but the eyebrows or even total body hair loss could occur. The response to treatment was good, only one patient relapsed. The histopathology was related to the clinical manifestations, there was sparse inflammatory cell infiltration in the dermis in macular lesions, but more dense infiltration as well as more epidermal change in papular and papulosquamous lesions. There were significant correlation between the duration of skin lesions and VDRL titer, but no correlation between types of skin lesions and VDRL titer.

Drug resistance of Haemophilus ducreyi.

Chancroid, the disease caused by H. ducreyi is one of the common sexually transmitted diseases (STD) in Thailand and other tropical countries. In Thailand, the diagnosis of chancroid is still based on clinical appearance which may be confused with other STD manifested by genital ulcers. In recent years the increasing resistance strains of H. ducreyi to these antimicrobial agents has been reported so that cultivation and antimicrobial susceptibility tests of this organism have become more important. This study showed that MBV is the best medium for isolation with a success rate of 48%. All strains tested from isolates of this study were resistant to ampicillin, due to production of beta-lactamase. Approximately 99% of the strains were resistant to tetracycline 92% of strains were resistant to sulfamethoxazole and 32% were resistant to trimethoprim. All isolates were susceptible to chloramphenicol, ceftriaxone, erythromycin and the fluorinated quinolones ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin, ofloxacin and pefloxacin. Beta-lactamase enzymes produced by 37 strains of H. ducreyi were determined for their isoelectric point (pI). All had pI of 5.4, indicative of plasmid-mediated beta-lactamase type TEM-1.

Cutaneous leukocytoclastic vasculitis: clinical and laboratory features of 45 patients seen in Ramathibodi Hospital.

Forty-five patients with histologically proved cutaneous leukocytoclastic vasculitis were studied with regard to the clinical features, laboratory findings and etiology. There were 12 males and 33 females, with an age range of 13 to 64 years. The most common skin lesions were palpable purpura which appeared mostly on the lower part of the legs. Renal involvement was the most common systemic manifestation, which occurred in 45 per cent of the patients. Abdominal pain occurred in 42 per cent of the male patients while none of the female patients had this symptom. Arthralgia occurred in 20 per cent of the patients. The most common laboratory abnormalities were elevation of ESR, which was significantly more common in females than in males (P = 0.047). The possible etiology of leukocytoclastic vasculitis was identified in 5 patients, these included streptococcal infection in 2 patients, in the other patients the possible causes were penicillin hypersensitivity, systemic lupus erythematosus and livedoid vasculitis, respectively.

Prevalence of chlamydial infection in patients with gonococcal urethritis.

Using a fluorescein labelled monoclonal antibody ("Microtrak") to identify Chalmydia elementary bodies in urethral smears, we detected Chlamydia trachomatis in 32 (26.67%) of 120 male patients after treatment of their gonococcal urethritis. Sixteen of these 32 patients (50%) had normal urethral smear. Only 16 (50%) of the patients yielding chlamydia would have received treatment in the absence of diagnostic service for chlamydial infection.