Psychosocial effects of hidradenitis suppurativa in the literature: A systematic review.

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is an inflammatory disorder characterized by painful, deep follicular nodules, abscesses, sinus tracts, and scarring, most commonly presenting in the inguinal, axillary, and anogenital regions. This condition substantially decreases quality of life in affected individuals, resulting in higher rates of psychiatric disorders including depression, anxiety, suicidality, and substance use. The detrimental effects of HS are well documented by dermatologists, as individuals with HS make up a large proportion of the patients that they see daily. However, it is unclear whether psychiatrists are aware of the degree of psychosocial impairment present in HS patients. It is important that those in the field of psychiatry and behavioral medicine are aware of this condition and are comfortable managing it from a psychosocial perspective. This systematic review chronicles the existing literature on the psychosocial effects of HS and assesses the extent to which dermatology journals review these effects in comparison to psychiatry or behavioral medicine.

Elevated factor VIII: an unfamiliar risk factor for cerebral venous thrombosis.

An elevated factor VIII level has been shown to be an independent risk factor for venous thrombosis. However, physicians screen for this factor far less frequently than they screen for other coagulopathies. The causes of increased factor VIII levels are likely a combination of genetic and acquired variables. The authors describe a case of a healthy 48-year-old woman found to have a cerebral venous thrombosis, with her only identifiable risk factor being an elevated factor VIII level.

Idiopathic acute renal vein thrombosis in a young healthy woman with no hypercoagulable state taking oral contraceptives.

Renal veins rarely thrombose. However, when they do, the cause is almost always obvious. The clinical circumstances underlying acute or chronic renal vein thrombosis are well defined. Interestingly, the use of oral contraceptive medications is not recognized among the risk factors for renal vein thrombosis. We report a case of spontaneous renal vein thrombosis in an otherwise healthy young woman taking an oral contraceptive. This report is intended to alert clinicians to a previously unknown and serious event associated with the use of a common medication.

Pituitary hyperplasia secondary to primary hypothyroidism: a case report and review of the literature.

Pituitary hyperplasia secondary to primary hypothyroidism has been reported in the literature in both adults and children. We report a case of a young woman who was diagnosed with hypothyroidism in her teenage years. Despite frequent follow-up, her TSH levels remained greater than 100 mIU/ml. A few years later, pituitary enlargement was found on an MRI at a time when her TSH was 177 mIU/ml and her free T4 was 0.2 ng/dl. Observed administration of 600 mcg of L-thyroxine was performed to determine the effectiveness of hormone absorption. Total T4 levels of 0.2 rose to 7.1 mcg/dl at two hours with a decrease in her TSH levels from 88.6 to 66.8 mIU/ml at 24 hours. With the exception of one short period, her TSH levels have remained elevated over eight years of observation without change in the size of the pituitary mass. In our review of the literature, primary uncontrolled hypothyroidism has been described as a precursor to pituitary hyperplasia. In these patients, TSH-secreting adenomas were distinguished from pituitary hyperplasia by a blunted TRH stimulation test, elevated alpha subunit concentration values, and elevated alpha subunit concentration/TSH ratios. TSH levels ranged from 98 to 732 mIU/ml in adults, and even higher values in children. Following adequate hormone replacement with L-thyroxine doses of 25 to 300 mcg/day, both symptoms and pituitary hyperplasia regressed on average within a few months.