Weekly phototherapy is an effective therapy for patients with vitiligo.

The current strategies for the treatment of vitiligo using phototherapy usually involve treatment for two-three times per week; however, in practice, the number of patient sessions does not meet this standard. The present study found that phototherapy once a week was also effective. The present study was designed to examine the efficacy of weekly light therapy. For this purpose, 296 patients with vitiligo were included and divided into five sub-samples of the neck, face, trunk, extremities and scalp according to the site of phototherapy, and were treated once or twice weekly with phototherapy. The difference in efficacy between phototherapy performed once and twice weekly was observed using a Chi-squared test. It was concluded that there was a minimal difference between phototherapy performed twice weekly compared to once weekly for the treatment of vitiligo on the face, neck, torso, limbs and scalp. Thus, phototherapy once a week is valid for the treatment of vitiligo, although weekly light therapy takes longer to restore color for the first time.

Topical 5-aminolevulinic acid photodynamic therapy for intra anal-rectal warts.

Background: Condylomata acuminata (CA) are a common sexually transmitted disease. The recurrence rate of condyloma acuminatum using traditional treatments is higher than that of applying photodynamic therapy, and a variety of adverse reactions after treatment. At the same time, different parts of condyloma acuminatum after treatment recurrence rate is also different, especially for intra anal-rectal warts.Objective: To evaluate whether using photodynamic therapy (PDT) can effectively reduce recurrence of condylomata acuminata for intra anal-rectal warts.Methods: After the confirmation of the diagnosis of intra anal-rectal warts, the patients were treated with PDT with 5-aminolevulinic acid hydrochloride (ALA). PDT was performed with irradiation of 18-36 J/cm2 at an irradiance of 20-40 mW/cm2 with light-emitting diode (LED) light energy, wavelength 635 nm. We used a special PDT light equipment for intra anal-rectal area warts. PDT was repeated once every week for 4 weeks.Results: After PDT, the complete clearance rate was 76.1% (35 of 46 patients). At the end of the 12 weeks followed, recurrence occurred in five cases. We recorded pain in all 46 patients and the average visual analog scale (VAS) pain score was 6.96 ± 1.41 points.Conclusion: The treatment with PDT is effective in reducing the high rate of recurrence for intra anal-rectal warts. Pain is still a great challenge for the therapy.

Comparison of Doxycycline and Benzathine Penicillin G for the Treatment of Early Syphilis.

Doxycycline is the preferred recommended second-line treatment for the treatment of early syphilis. Recent reports showed a declining efficacy trend of doxycycline in treatment of early syphilis. The aim of our study was to assess the serological response to the treatment for early syphilis with doxycycline compared with benzathine penicillin G and evaluate whether doxycycline is still an effective agent for the treatment of early syphilis. A record-based retrospective study was conducted. Patients were diagnosed with early syphilis in an sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2014. They were treated with a single dose of benzathine penicillin G 2.4MU or oral doxycycline 100 mg twice daily for 14 days. Pearson's chi-squared test was used for data analysis. 601 cases were included in the final study sample: 105 (17.5%) patients received a 14-day course of doxycycline (doxycycline group), and 496 (82.5%) patients received single-dose benzathine penicillin G (BPG group). The serological responses at 6 months and 12 months after treatment were compared. No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups at 6 months (69.52% vs. 75.00%, P=0.245), and at 12 months (92.38% vs. 96.17%, P=0.115). Doxycycline is still an effective agent for the treatment of early syphilis.

A large-scale genome-wide association and meta-analysis identified four novel susceptibility loci for leprosy.

Leprosy, a chronic infectious disease, results from the uncultivable pathogen Mycobacterium leprae (M. leprae), and usually progresses to peripheral neuropathy and permanent progressive deformity if not treated. Previously published genetic studies have identified 18 gene/loci significantly associated with leprosy at the genome-wide significant level. However as a complex disease, only a small proportion of leprosy risk could be explained by those gene/loci. To further identify more susceptibility gene/loci, we hereby performed a three-stage GWAS comprising 8,156 leprosy patients and 15,610 controls of Chinese ancestry. Four novel loci were identified including rs6807915 on 3p25.2 (P=1.94 × 10-8, OR=0.89), rs4720118 on 7p14.3 (P=3.85 × 10-10, OR=1.16), rs55894533 on 8p23.1 (P=5.07 × 10-11, OR=1.15) and rs10100465 on 8q24.11 (P=2.85 × 10-11, OR=0.85). Altogether, these findings have provided new insight and significantly expanded our understanding of the genetic basis of leprosy.