BACKGROUND/AIM Reduced vitamin D is considered as one of the environmental factors that can increase the prevalence of certain autoimmune diseases. This study aimed to assess vitamin D metabolism in patients with vitiligo. MATERIALS AND METHODS A prospective case-control study was conducted on 44 consecutive patients with vitiligo vulgaris and 43 healthy controls. Their plasma 25-hydroxyvitam...

A 81-year-old woman was diagnosed as having diabetes mellitus (DM) at 58 years of age. She started insulin therapy the following year, but her blood sugar levels were poorly controlled. At the age of 75, she tested positive for the anti-GAD antibody (7.8 U/ml) and was diagnosed as having slowly progressive type 1 DM (SPIDDM), as well as vitiligo vulgaris. At 78 years of age, chronic thyroiditis...

Dear Editor, Azathioprine, a steroid sparing immunosuppressant, is used in organ transplantation and various immunological diseases like pemphigus vulgaris, pemphigus foliaceous, vitiligo, lichen planus, and alopecia areata. Anagen effluvium (AE) is the abrupt loss of hairs in their growing phase most commonly due to chemotherapy and radiation 1. Azathioprine can cause AE in association with my...

The skin diseases are often incurable and treatments aim to reduce symptoms. Common examples include eczema, psoriasis, acne, rosacea and vitiligo. Whether these conditions are common or very rare, the impact on quality of life can be far-reaching and profound even without stigmatisation. Stigmatisation is an expression of prejudice and ignorance which the medical profession has a duty to comba...

BACKGROUND Hypnosis is an alternative or complementary therapy that has been used since ancient times to treat medical and dermatologic problems. OBJECTIVE To describe the various uses for hypnosis as an alternative or complementary therapy in dermatologic practice. METHODS A MEDLINE search was conducted from January 1966 through December 1998 on key words related to hypnosis and skin disor...

Better understanding of tolerance and autoimmunity toward melanocyte-specific Ags is needed to develop effective treatment for vitiligo and malignant melanoma; yet, a systematic assessment of these mechanisms has been hampered by the difficulty in tracking autoreactive T cells. To address this issue, we have generated transgenic mice that express hen egg lysozyme as a melanocyte-specific neoant...

chance, not choice. Lancet. 2002;359(9305):515-519. 61. Day SJ, Altman DG. Statistics notes: blinding in clinical trials and other studies. BMJ. 2000;321(7259):504. 62. Taı̈eb A, Picardo M; VETF Members. The definition and assessment of vitiligo: a consensus report of the Vitiligo European Task Force. Pigment Cell Res. 2007; 20(1):27-35. 63. Finlay AY, Khan GK. Dermatology Life Quality Index (DL...