Rash after visiting Tucson.

Cactus dermatitis is a common problem among harvesters of cactus fruit. The smaller spines (glochidia) are responsible for most of the dermatitis. Easily separated from the body of the plant, the glochidia may be transferred to bystanders through contact with clothing or pets exposed to these cacti. Removal of the glochidia from the skin is key to treatment, and household glue may aid in this extraction.

Cimex lectularius. What is this insect and how does it affect man?

Cimex lectularius, the common bed bug, is a bloodsucking nocturnal parasite of man. Other hosts for this bug include chickens, bats, and some domestic animals. Cimex feeds by piercing the host with hollow tubes derived from the maxilla. Saliva injected at the time of feeding is associated with local and sometimes widespread urticaria. This pest has become less important over the last half century with general improvements in household and personal cleanliness.

Configuring for the World Wide Web: recommendations for dermatologists.

Physicians have become increasingly interested in obtaining the hardware, software, and connection necessary to take advantage of the educational and practice material available on the World Wide Web (WWW) (i.e., on the Internet). The related ongoing development of unique on-line resources promises to provide a compelling force for change in the way in which information is accessed and medicine is practiced. WWW applications created for dermatologists often include high-quality images, and proper viewing is critical to use this information. Because images tend to be large files, and dermatology resources tend to have from several up to hundreds of images, the speed of transfer and display and the quality of the display are important factors to consider. This study was an evaluation of some of the current options in the hardware, software, and Internet connections to determine desirable configurations for accessing image-rich, on-line dermatology WWW applications.

Internet tools in the medical classroom.

The Internet contains a vast amount of medically relevant information. In order to access this information, however, many networks require one to master applications written in UNIX, an operating system considered by many not to be user friendly. Although these tools may be available on campus, it is difficult to teach their use unless there is some immediate benefit to the already busy user. From that standpoint, it is important for instructors to realize that common UNIX applications can be utilized as classroom tools to significantly enhance the learning experience by facilitating teacher/student communication. Also, whilst the student enjoys greater communication with the instructor (and with other students) he/she is also becoming adept at using information management tools.

Internet resources for dermatology.

Accessible today, through the use of a computer with a modem, are many new Internet resources that represent major advances in information management. These resources, which are available at little or no expense, are of special value to physicians and scientists. This article describes many of the more basic and valuable Internet services with an emphasis on applications for dermatologists.

Eyelid involvement in acanthosis nigricans.

We treated a 56-year-old man who had acanthosis nigricans associated with gastric adenocarcinoma and involving the axillae, hands, feet, anus, soft palate, and eyes. The patient developed epiphora from occlusion of the canaliculi with papillomatous lesions. Recognition of the ocular signs of this paraneoplastic syndrome may indicate to the ophthalmologist that the patient should have a thorough oncologic examination.

Chronic urticaria.

Urticaria affects 15% to 20% of the population once or more during a lifetime. Chronic urticaria is a frequent recurrent eruption over a period greater than 6 weeks; the cause remains a mystery in more than 75% of cases. Urticaria and angioedema may be produced by immunologic or nonimmunologic means. Urticarial vasculitis, contact urticaria, mastocytosis, physical urticarias, dermatographism, cholinergic urticaria, localized heat urticaria, cold urticaria, aquagenic urticaria, and vibratory angioedema all require specific evaluation and treatment. Chronic idiopathic urticaria is usually controlled by antihistamines; depending on the circadian rhythm of the eruption, sedative or nonsedative antihistamines are prescribed. Some patients will require a combination of H1 and H2 antagonists, or even parenteral corticosteroids.

Quantitative determination of skin thickness in diabetes mellitus: relationship to disease parameters.

It has been suggested that thick skin on the dorsum of the hands and fingers is a common finding in diabetes mellitus, and that affected persons have an increased prevalence of diabetic retinal microvascular disease. Using high resolution ultrasonography, we were able to quantitatively demonstrate increased skin thickness on the hands and feet of many of our diabetic patients. In our limited series, however, there was no correlation with retinal disease. The general occurrence of thick skin on the extremities of persons with diabetes mellitus is apparently independent from the thick skin syndromes which are associated with disease complications.