BACKGROUND Conjunctival flaps are a widely used treatment for numerous corneal ulcers that are caused by microorganismal infections. However, whether it can be performed on immune-mediated corneal ulcers is controversial. CASE PRESENTATION We present two cases of Mooren's ulcer that were treated using conjunctival flap in an attempt to prevent further corneal perforation at their local hospit...

A 71-year-old Chinese male was referred for severe dry eyes who suffered from multiple corneal melting ulcers and underwent a long-term and high-dosage interferon alpha-2b (INFα-2b) treatment for multiple myeloma (MM). The patient was diagnosed to have MM 12 years ago, and since then INFα-2b (3-million units, intramuscularly, three times a week) was prescribed until the present. Two years ago, ...

ANCA-associated vasculitides are a well-known clinico-pathological group of systemic diseases comprising microscopic poliangiitis, granulomatosis with poliangiitis and eosinophilic granulomatosis with poliangiitis. This article shows contemporary treatment of this diseases with extensive literature review. Stepwise treatment of ANCA-associated vasculitides is divided into induction therapy and ...

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation is common in patients with severe ulcerative colitis (UC), and may ref lect exacerbation of mucosal inf lammation and/or administration of immunosuppressants. The question of whether CMV is an active pathogen or 'an innocent bystander' in the exacerbation of UC remains controversial. Patients with UC exacerbated by reactivated CMV experience worse prognoses th...

Esophageal involvement of pemphigus vulgaris is rare, and when present, the most common presenting symptoms reported in the medical literature are odynophagia and dysphagia. Here, we present two cases of pemphigus vulgaris presenting with upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage because of esophageal involvement of the disease. In case 1, a 41-year-old female patient with a prior diagnosis of pemphigu...

Together with CsA, the new macrolide immunosuppressants FK506 and rapamycin have proved to be valuable tools in providing new information about key molecular events that underlie lymphocyte activation and degranulation. Studies of their mechanisms of action have pinpointed the phosphatase calcineurin and protein kinases as important signaling mediators in T-cell activation. Other new immunosupp...

Polymyositis is characterised by an inflammatory reaction in skeletal muscle with a variable degree of muscular weakness and associated with skin lesions in the case of dermatomyositis. Involvement of the muscles of deglutition and the diaphragm may lead to inhalation pneumonia and acute or chronic respiratory failure, often hypercapnic. The other respiratory manifestations are diffuse intersti...

We describe two cases of disseminated mucormycosis following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Both patients were suffering from chronic graft-ver-sus-host disease (GVHD) and treated with prolonged administration of corticosteroid. In both cases, the initial symptoms were high fever and left flank pain. Involved organs were the spleen, right kidney and the right lung in one case, an...

Indications of plasma exchanges for systemic vasculitides are well delineated according to the results of therapeutic trials undergone during the past decades. In combination with antiviral agents and/or immunosuppressants, plasma exchanges appear to be essential in the treatment of HBV-related polyarteritis nodosa; pauci-immune glomerulonephritis, kidney-limited or as a feature of Wegener’s gr...