Made by DATEXIS (Data Science and Text-based Information Systems) at Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin
Deep Learning Technology: Sebastian Arnold, Betty van Aken, Paul Grundmann, Felix A. Gers and Alexander Löser. Learning Contextualized Document Representations for Healthcare Answer Retrieval. The Web Conference 2020 (WWW'20)
Funded by The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy; Grant: 01MD19013D, Smart-MD Project, Digital Technologies
With no particular affinity to any particular ethnic group, seen in all age groups and equally amongst males and females, the precise prevalence is not known.
It is estimated that 2—3 percent of hospitalised patients are affected by a drug eruption, and that serious drug eruptions occur in around 1 in 1000 patients.
The culprit can be both a prescription drug or an over-the-counter medication.
Examples of common drugs causing drug eruptions are antibiotics and other antimicrobial drugs, sulfa drugs, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), biopharmaceuticals, chemotherapy agents, anticonvulsants, and psychotropic drugs. Common examples include photodermatitis due to local NSAIDs (such as piroxicam) or due to antibiotics (such as minocycline), fixed drug eruption due to acetaminophen or NSAIDs (Ibuprofen), and the rash following ampicillin in cases of mononucleosis.
Certain drugs are less likely to cause drug eruptions (rates estimated to be ≤3 per 1000 patients exposed). These include: digoxin, aluminum hydroxide, multivitamins, acetaminophen, bisacodyl, aspirin, thiamine, prednisone, atropine, codeine, hydrochlorothiazide, morphine, insulin, warfarin, and spironolactone.
Id reactions are frequently unresponsive to corticosteroid therapy, but clear when the focus of infection or infestation is treated. Therefore, the best treatment is to treat the provoking trigger. Sometimes medications are used to relieve symptoms.These include topical corticosteroids, and antihistamines. If opportunistic bacterial infection occurs, antibiotics may be required.
Animal models of bullous pemphigoid have been developed using transgenic techniques to produce mice lacking the genes for the two known autoantigens, dystonin and collagen XVII.
Treatments include class I topical steroids (clobetasol, halobetasol, etc.) which in some studies have proven to be equally effective as systemic, or pill, therapy and somewhat safer. However, in difficult-to-manage or widespread cases, systemic prednisone and powerful steroid-free immunosuppressant medications, such as methotrexate, azathioprine or mycophenolate mofetil, may be appropriate. Antibiotics such as tetracycline or erythromycin may also control the disease, particularly in patients who cannot use corticosteroids. The anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody rituximab has been found to be effective in treating some otherwise refractory cases of bullous pemphigoid.
IgA-mediated pemphigoid can often be difficult to treat even with usually effective medications such as rituximab.
Dapsone is an effective treatment in most people. Itching is typically reduced within 2–3 days. However, dapsone treatment has no effect on any intestinal damage that might be present.
Therefore, a strict gluten-free diet must also be followed, and this will usually be a lifelong requirement. This will reduce any associated intestinal damage and the risk of other complications. After some time on a gluten-free diet, the dosage of dapsone can usually be reduced or even stopped, although this can take many years.
Dapsone is an antibacterial, and its role in the treatment of DH, which is not caused by bacteria, is poorly understood. It can cause adverse effects on the blood, so regular blood monitoring is required.
Dapsone is the drug of choice. For individuals with DH unable to tolerate dapsone for any reason, alternative treatment options may include the following:
- colchicine
- lymecycline
- nicotinamide
- tetracycline
- sulfamethoxypyridazine
- sulfapyridine
Research into using genetically modified T-cells to treat pemphigus vulgaris in mice was reported in 2016. Rituximab indiscriminately attacks all B cells, which reduces the body's ability to control infections. In the experimental treatment, human T cells are genetically engineered to recognize only those B cells that produce antibodies to desmoglein 3.
Dermatitis herpetiformis generally responds well to medication and changes in diet. However, it is an autoimmune disease, and patients with DH are more likely than others to have thyroid problems and intestinal lymphoma.
Dermatitis herpetiformis does not usually cause complications on its own, without being associated with another condition. Complications from this condition, however, arise from the autoimmune character of the disease, as an overreacting immune system is a sign that something does not work well and might cause problems to other parts of the body that do not necessarily involve the digestive system.
Gluten intolerance and the body's reaction to it make the disease more worrying in what concerns the possible complications. This means that complications that may arise from dermatitis herpetiformis are the same as those resulting from coeliac disease, which include osteoporosis, certain kinds of gut cancer, and an increased risk of other autoimmune diseases such as thyroid disease.
The risks of developing complications from dermatitis herpetiformis decrease significantly if the affected individuals follow a gluten-free diet. The disease has been associated with autoimmune thyroid disease, insulin-dependent diabetes, lupus erythematosus, Sjögren's syndrome, sarcoidosis, vitiligo, and alopecia areata.
Urticarial dermatoses are distinct from urticaria, which examples being drug-induced urticaria, eosinophilic cellulitis and bullous pemphigoid. It is important to distinguish urticaria from urticarial dermatoses. The individual wheals of urticaria are ‘here today and gone tomorrow’ (i.e. they last less than 24 hours), whereas with urticarial dermatoses, the individual lesions last for days or longer.
Bullous drug reaction (also known as a "bullous drug eruption", "generalized bullous fixed drug eruption", and "multilocular bullous fixed drug eruption") most commonly refers to a drug reaction in the erythema multiforme group. These are uncommon reactions to medications, with an incidence of 0.4 to 1.2 per million person-years for toxic epidermal necrolysis and 1.2 to 6.0 per million person-years for Stevens–Johnson syndrome. The primary skin lesions are large erythemas (faintly discernible even after confluence), most often irregularly distributed and of a characteristic purplish-livid color, at times with flaccid blisters.
Pemphigoid is usually considered to be mediated by IgG, but IgA-mediated forms have also been described.
IgA-mediated immunobullous diseases can often be difficult to treat even with usually effective medications such as rituximab.
Corticosteroids and other immunosuppressive medications have historically been employed to reduce pemphigus symptoms, yet steroids are associated with serious and long-lasting side effects and their use should be limited as much as possible. Intravenous immunoglobulin, mycophenolate mofetil, methotrexate, azathioprine, and cyclophosphamide have also been used with varying degrees of success.
An established alternative to steroids are monoclonal antibodies such as rituximab, which are increasingly being used as first-line treatment. In numerous case series, many patients achieve remission after one cycle of rituximab. Treatment is more successful if initiated early on in the course of disease, perhaps even at diagnosis. Rituximab treatment combined with monthly IV immunoglobulin infusions has resulted in long-term remission with no recurrence of disease in 10 years after treatment was halted. This was a small trial study of 11 patients with 10 patients followed to completion.
Since the common pathogens involved with impetigo are bacteria naturally found on the skin, most prevention (especially in children), is targeted towards appropriate hygiene, wound cleaning, and minimizing scratching (i.e. by keeping nails trimmed and short). Avoiding close contact and sharing of items such as towels with potentially infected individuals is also recommended.
After 48 hours the disease is considered no longer contagious assuming the proper antibiotic treatments have been administered.
Topical and intralesional (injected into the affected areas) corticosteroid drugs may be used, such as fluocinonide, clobetasol propionate or triamcinolone acetonide. Oral candidiasis may develop with long term topical steroid use, and sometimes antimycotics such as miconazole gel or chlorhexidine mouthwash are used to prevent this. Topical ciclosporin is sometimes used.
Dapsone is sometimes used as a steroid sparing agent. The dose is often increased very slowly in order to minimize side effects. Systemic steroids, such as prednisone or prednisolone may be needed in severe cases. Many other drugs have been used to treat mucous membrane pemphoid, including azathioprine, cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, thalidomide, mycophenolate mofetil, leflunomide, sulphasalazine, sulphapuridine, sulphamethoxypiridazine, tetracyclines (e.g. minocycline, doxycycline) and nicotinamide.
Simple measures that can be taken include avoidance of hard, sharp or rough foods, and taking care when eating. Good oral hygiene is also usually advised, and professional oral hygiene measures such as periodontal scaling.
In 2016, interferon gamma/CXCL10 axis was hypothesized to be a target for treatments that reverse inflammation. Apremilast is undergoing investigation as a potential treatment .
Autoimmune estrogen dermatitis presents as a cyclic skin disorder, that may appear eczematous, papular, bullous, or urticarial. with pruritus typically present, skin eruptions that may be chronic but which are exacerbated premenstrually or occur immediately following menses.
The treatment is (1) stop the offending drug (antibiotics), (2) symptomatic (fever), and (3) for complications (hepatitis).
There is no cure for lichen planus, and so treatment of cutaneous and oral lichen planus is for symptomatic relief or due to cosmetic concerns. When medical treatment is pursued, first-line treatment typically involves corticosteroids, and removal of any triggers. Without treatment, most lesions will spontaneously resolve within 6–9 months for cutaneous lesions, and longer for mucosal lesions.
Pemphigoid is a group of rare autoimmune blistering skin diseases. As its name indicates, pemphigoid is similar in general appearance to pemphigus, but, unlike pemphigus, pemphigoid does not feature acantholysis, a loss of connections between skin cells.
Pemphigoid is more common than pemphigus, and is slightly more common in women than in men. It is also more common in people over 60 years of age than it is in younger people.
Photosensitive drug reaction (or drug-induced photosensitivity) secondary to medications may cause phototoxic, photoallergic, and lichenoid reactions, and photodistributed telangiectasias, as well as pseudoporphyria.
Drugs involved include naproxen and doxycycline.
Erythema multiforme major (also known as "erythema multiforme majus") is a form of rash with skin loss or epidermal detachment.
The term "erythema multiforme majus" is sometimes used to imply a bullous (blistering) presentation.
According to some sources, there are two conditions included on a spectrum of this same disease process:
- Stevens–Johnson syndrome (SJS)
- Toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) which described by Alan Lyell and previously called Lyell syndrome[5].
In this view, EM major, SJS and TEN are considered a single condition, distinguished by degree of epidermal detachment.
However, a consensus classification separates erythema multiforme minor, erythema multiforme major, and SJS/TEN as three separate entities.
Drug-induced pruritus is itchiness of the skin caused by medication, a pruritic reaction that is generalized.