Case report A 58 year old non-smoking caucasian woman noticed an itchy rash on her buttocks on 29 October 1983, two days before returning to London from her holiday in Barbados. Her travelling companions were unaffected. On her return similar lesions developed on her legs and abdomen. On 15 November she noticed a cough, which was dry until 25 November, when she produced a little white sputum. T...

Pruritus is frequently reported by patients with cholestatic hepatobiliary diseases such as primary biliary cirrhosis, primary sclerosing cholangitis, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy and hereditary cholestatic syndromes, but may accompany almost any other liver disease. Increased concentrations of bile salts, histamine, progesterone metabolites or endogenous opioids have been controversia...

In this study, the antipruritic effect of the methanol extract of Ganoderma lucidum (MEGL) was studied in mice. Oral administration of MEGL (10-1000 mg/kg) produced a dose-dependent inhibition of scratching, an itch-related response, induced by intradermal 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) (100 nmol/site), alpha-methyl-5-HT (100 nmol/site), and proteinase-activated receptor-2 (PAR(2))-activating pepti...

Within the last decade understanding of the mechanistic basis of itch has improved significantly, resulting in the development of several human surrogate models of itch and related dysesthetic states. Well-characterized somatosensory models are useful in basic studies in healthy volunteers, in clinical studies for diagnostic and segmentation purposes, and in pharmacological studies to evaluate ...

This Review highlights selected frontiers in pruritus research and focuses on recently attained insights into the neurophysiological, neuroimmunological, and neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying skin-derived itch (pruritogenic pruritus), which may affect future antipruritic strategies. Special attention is paid to newly identified itch-specific neuronal pathways in the spinothalamic tract that ...

The goal of this study was to perform a meta-analysis on randomized controlled trials of topical therapies compared against their vehicles, and systemic therapies compared against their placebos, and to record how these therapies changed the magnitude of pruritus associated with atopic dermatitis. A systematic search of the literature was performed using Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Contro...

The pathogenesis of pruritus in psoriasis remains unclear. Many possible mediators were implicated to transmit or modulate this sensation in psoriasis, but none has been clearly proven to be a causative agent of itching. The most often discussed theory mentioned the importance of impaired innervations and neuropeptides imbalance in psoriatic skin. Other possible causes of itching might be incre...