Chemotherapy-induced persistent serpentine supra-venous hyperpigmented eruption and persistent supra-venous erythematous eruption: case report.

This paper presents the case of an 85-year-old male affected by classic Kaposi's sarcoma (CKS) since 1994. The disease was widespread over much of the skin surface. Since 1995 the patient had undergone several chemotherapy treatments with good, but not lasting results. Due to a worsening in the pathology, in October 2005 the patient was prescribed a further cycle of vinorelbine. Twenty-four hours after the first infusion, followed by isotonic sodium chloride solution vein wash, a supra-venous serpentine erythematous lesion appeared directly above infusion site. The lesion extended centripetally from the injection point and involved the whole supra-venous area. Over the following days, a gradual variation in lesion colour, from erythematous to hyperpigmented, was observed. Given this clinical and histological picture, the diagnosis of persistent serpentine supra-venous hyperpigmented eruption (PSSHE) was made. Draft of a rare secondary effect whose pathogenesis still remain to explain. The literature holds reports of another skin manifestation with similar supra-venous characteristics: persistent supra-venous erythematous eruption (PSSE), clinical entity that enters in differential diagnosis with the PSSHE. Many of the drugs used in chemotherapy have been indicated as responsible for these peculiar side-effects. To the authors' knowledge, the literature reports only one PHSSE case induced by i.v. vinorelbine infusion.

Tubulin isoforms are differently expressed in developing and mature neurons: a study on the cerebral cortex of newborn and adult rats.

Tubulin heterogeneity was observed in the rat brain, where these proteins can vary in different neurons suggesting multiple functions. In this paper, the different expression of tubulins in cerebral cortex between newborn and adult rats was analyzed by Western blot and immunocytochemical methods, using anti-tubulin antibodies. Our results showed that tubulins were present at higher levels in the newborn than in the adult cerebral cortex. In newborn rats, a marked staining of the perikarya and basal dendrites of pyramidal cells was noted. This significant expression of tubulins in the newborn cerebral cortex could be related to the major needs of tubulins in developing neurons. The higher amount in tyrosine-tubulin and class III beta-tubulin could be consistent with the state of "dynamic instability", typical of the microtubular network of neurons during brain development.

The skin response in evaluation of the sympathetic chains after retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy. Preliminary report.

The sympathetic skin response (SSR) permits recording of the sympathetic amyelinic fibres activity in relation to the function of sudoriparous glands. We recorded the SSR to check the efficacy of "nerve-sparing" technique in surgery of the sympathetic retroperitoneal postganglionic fibres following lymphadenectomy in nonseminomatous testis cancer. The results showed that SSR can be used to verify the integrity of the lumbar sympathetic chains after retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy.