Archive for September, 2008

Acne: Uncommon Association

They are miscellaneous groups of diseases which coexist with acne .

(1) Acne excoriee: This usually occurs in females. Two types are there, first without any inflammatory lesion and the other with mild primary inflammatory acne lesions. This is usually seen in a female who ‘fiddle’ with the skin and exacerbate the small lesion. Contact dermatitis should be excluded. Patient commonly suffer from personality or psychological problem.

Treatment is with oral antibiotics like oxytetracycline 0.5 gm twice daily or with lymecycline once daily for several months. Topical ointments are of no use, they only irritate the skin and aggravate the situation. Advice should be given not to pick the spots, which is very useful. After treatment with oral antibiotics patient get fewer spots to “play” with.

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Check Your BMI & Health Status

Here is a ready for checking (BMI) list. In the first left column your height in centimeters and to the right of that column your body weight. The nos. 17,18.5, 20, 22, 25, 30, 35 and 40 denotes BMI. The BMI of 18.5 to 30 is the normal range. BMI above 30 is obesity and not good for health. BMI below 18.5 is underweight, it is also not good for health.

If your weight and height do not match in the list you can calculate your own BMI by the following formula:

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Acne: Severe Forms (The Other Four)

They are miscellaneous groups of diseases which coexist with acne .

(1) Acne excoriee: This usually occurs in females. Two types are there, first without any inflammatory lesion and the other with mild primary inflammatory acne lesions. This is usually seen in a female who ‘fiddle’ with the skin and exacerbate the small lesion. Contact dermatitis should be excluded. Patient commonly suffer from personality or psychological problem.

Treatment is with oral antibiotics like oxytetracycline 0.5 gm twice daily or with lymecycline once daily for several months. Topical ointments are of no use, they only irritate the skin and aggravate the situation. Advice should be given not to pick the spots, which is very useful. After treatment with oral antibiotics patient get fewer spots to “play” with.

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Acne: Severe Forms

There are mainly six severe forms of acne. They are (1) acne conglobata, (2) acne fulminans, (3) gram-negative folliculitis, (4) pyoderma faciale (also known rosasea fulminans), (5) SAPHA syndrome and (6) pyoderma gangrenosum acne.

The first two are discussed here:

(1) Acne conglobata: This is very uncommon but very severe form of acne. This is particularly seen in males and usually occurs in the trunk and upper limbs. Unlike common acne, facial lesions are less common in acne conglobata. This type of acne starts in early teens and increases in severity in second and third decade. This is characterized by multiple inflammatory papules and tender (painful) nodules. They frequently fuse together to form draining sinuses (sinus is a channel with opening outside). Large scaring and multiple blackheads are also seen. There may be malignant (cancerous) change in the scar. Rarely it is seen with folliculitis decalvans which is very rare and chronic progressive hair disease that produce scaring alopecia (baldness of head). There is extensive scaring. Familial cases of acne conglobata has been reported. It may persist up to the age of 40-50 years.

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Treatment of acne & Acne Scar

Acne can be a major problem in adolescence. Cause of acne is mainly due to four reasons namely excess sebum production (seborrhea), formation of comedones (comedogenesis), inflammation and presence of bacteria propinibacterium acnes.

Acne cream treatment is one of the best forms of treatment. It is used for treatment of acne. Acne creams can be of antibiotic to kill the causative bacteria of acne i.e. propinibacterium acnes or it may be of keratolytic property (peeling effect) like benzoyl peroxide. Benzoyl peroxide is mainly keratolytic, but it has some antibacterial property as well.

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