Commonly prescribed medications associated with alopecia.

BACKGROUND: The diagnosis and treatment of medication-associated alopecia often challenges patients and physicians. While numerous studies on the topic exist, limited information on the strength and magnitude of these studies exists. OBJECTIVES: We investigated the most commonly prescribed medications with high levels of evidence to support associations with alopecia. METHODS: A list of most commonly prescribed medications was compiled using the "Top 100 Prescriptions, Sales" (Intercontinental Marketing Services) and "Top 200 Names Searched" (RxList.com). PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science were searched for "generic drug name" AND "alopecia" and "generic drug name" AND "hair loss." Two reviewers independently reviewed articles for drug, study type and level of evidence, and number of alopecia cases. RESULTS: A total of 192 unique drugs were investigated, with 110 yielding positive search results. Of these, 13 were associated with alopecia in studies with strong levels of evidence (adalimumab, infliximab, budesonide, interferon ß-1α, tacrolimus, enoxaparin, zoster vaccine, lamotrigine, docetaxel, capecitabine, erlotinib, imatinib, and bortezomib). LIMITATIONS: Only full-length articles available in the English language were included. The methodology used relied on lists of drugs based on their sales rather than number of prescriptions, which likely overrepresented expensive drugs. CONCLUSIONS: Few studies with high levels of evidence have been conducted on the topic of medication-associated alopecia. The mechanisms of hair loss must be further identified to provide effective management.

Acne treatment: analysis of acne-related social media posts and the impact on patient care.

Many patients use social media as a source of medical information on dermatologic diseases. Social media offers accessible methods of communicating with physicians, other patients, and pharmacies. The information gathered through social media posts has the potential to influence patients' views of their conditions and treatment options, though the source often is unknown. This systematic review examined the content and source of social media posts identified using the search terms acne and treatment across all social media platforms available through a commercial social media data aggregating software (Crimson Hexagon) from May 2008 to May 2016. The goal of this study was to identify sources of acne-related social media posts to determine communication trends to gain a better understanding of the potential impact social media may have on patient care.

Performance of a computer-aided digital dermoscopic image analyzer for melanoma detection in 1,076 pigmented skin lesion biopsies.

BACKGROUND: Digital dermoscopic image analysis of pigmented skin lesions (PSLs) has become increasingly popular, despite its unclear clinical utility. Unbiased, high-powered studies investigating the efficacy of commercially available systems are limited. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the diagnostic performance of the FotoFinder Mole-Analyzer in assessing PSLs for cutaneous melanoma. METHODS: In this 15-year retrospective study, the histopathologies of 1076 biopsied PSLs among a total of 2500 imaged PSLs were collected. The biopsied PSLs were categorized as benign or malignant (cutaneous melanoma) based on histopathology. Analyzer scores (0-1.00) for these PSLs were obtained and grouped according to histopathology. RESULTS: At an optimized cutoff score of 0.50, a sensitivity of 56% and a specificity of 74% were achieved. The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve was 0.698, indicating poor accuracy as a diagnostic tool. LIMITATIONS: This study had a retrospective design and involved only a single institution. CONCLUSION: Our study reveals a low sensitivity of the scoring function of this digital dermoscopic image analyzer for detecting cutaneous melanomas. Physicians must apply keen clinical judgment when using such devices in the screening of suspicious PSLs.

UV tanning advertisements in national high school newspapers.

Many young adults have utilized indoor ultraviolet(UV) tanning, putting them at higher risk for development of skin cancers. Prior to the increased regulations on indoor tanning for minors, indoor tanning businesses marketed to teens through modalities such as advertisements in high school newspapers. The purpose of this study was to quantify tanning advertisements in high school newspapers published across the United States between August 2014 and July 2015. Online versions of the newspaper issues were available on issuu.com. Tanning advertisements appeared in 3 of 23 high school newspapers with advertisements of any kind(13%). Among all newspapers with advertisements, 10% were indoor tanning advertisements. One newspaper in Colorado contained advertisements of any kind and had 0 tanning advertisements. A prior study of Colorado high schools showed 11 of 23 schools (48%) to contain tanning advertisements. This suggests that there may be a decrease in indoor UV tanning advertisements owing to increased tanning regulation by state legislatures, national attention to UV tanning, or a general decrease in high school tanning advertisements.

Dermatology on Reddit: elucidating trends in dermatologic communications on the world wide web.

Platforms of social media, including the website Reddit, have become increasingly popular sites for users to communicate medical information. A study investigating dermatology content on Reddit has not been performed in the current literature. The purpose of this study is to enumerate the dermatology subreddits, quantify subscribers, and characterize posts to estimate the presence of dermatology-related content on Reddit. A Reddit search of the fourteen most common skin diseases globally was performed. Additionally, the terms "dermatology", and "skin" were searched in order to identify more subreddits relevant to the field. Dermatology-related subreddits that had ≥1000 subscribers were evaluated for content and categorized for analysis. We identified 38 subreddits related to dermatology with subscriber numbers ranging from 52 to 209,973. For 17 of the 38 subreddits that were further analyzed, most posts fell under the category of "seeking health/cosmetic advice." Reddit serves as a communication stage for individuals to discuss, engage, and connect on dermatologic topics. Furthermore, the platform offers an opportunity for medical professionals to distribute evidence-based information concerning dermatologic conditions.