Observations on the Efficacy of Fire Needling Therapy for Vitiligo / 上海针灸杂志

Objective To assess the clinical efficacy and safety of fire needling therapy for vitiligo. Method A self-control study was carried out. Fifty-six vitiligo patients with 124 skin lesions were allocated by long-axis random to two groups. The treatment group received fire needling therapy weekly for 12 times or until cure and the control group, no treatment as a blank control. The clinical efficacy and safety were assessed after the completion of treatment. Result The total efficacy rate of local fire needling therapy for vitiligo skin lesions was 79.8% and there was a statistically significant difference as compared with the control group (P<0.05). The therapeutic effect was better in patients with faciocervical skin lesions or short course of disease. The therapeutic effect increased with an increase in the course of treatment at the early stage of treatment but did not significantly increase after 8 weeks of treatment. Main adverse reactions were mild pain and skin infection. Conclusion Local fire needling has a definite therapeutic effect on vitiligo with high safety.

Adult-onset atopic dermatitis / 中华皮肤科杂志

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is an inflammatory skin disease closely related to impairment of skin barrier function.Hereditary factors,life style and exposure to the environment all contribute to the occurrence of AD.Even though AD occurs mostly in infants,sometimes it may initially occur in adults,which is called adult-onset AD (AOAD).There are evident differences in types,immunological mechanisms and association with other diseases between childhood AD and AOAD.The lesional distribution of AOAD is similar to that of childhood AD,while AOAD is characterized by subacute and chronic dermatitis,and mainly manifests as dry hypertrophic lesions rarely complicated with exudation.Th1/Th2 imbalance and hyperfunction of antigen-presenting cells are immunological basis of AD occurrence.Moreover,FLG gene mutations are associated with the occurrence of AD.Acquired expression defect in the FLG gene induced by elevated levels of interleukin-13 (IL-13) only occurs in adults,suggesting that AOAD is different from AD that initially occurs during infancy and continues into adulthood.Infection,changes of bacterial flora in the skin and intestinal tract,and smoking are all important causative factors of AOAD,thus enquiries about histories of related diseases and smoking are helpful for the diagnosis of AOAD.