Carlo Crosti

BACKGROUND: Epidermolysis bullosa acquisita (EBA) is a rare autoimmune mucocutaneous bullous disease caused by autoantibodies against type VII collagen, a component of anchoring fibrils that stabilizes dermoepidermal adherence. Type VII collagen is composed of a collagenous domain linked by the noncollagenous (NC)1 and NC2 domains.

OBJECTIVES:  To assess the repeatability, sensitivity and specificity of a recently developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detection of ...

Pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) is a rare, immune-mediated inflammatory skin disease presenting with painful ulcers having undermined edges. Less commonly, bullous and vegetative variants exist. Histology consists of a neutrophil-rich dermal infiltrate. We characterized immunohistochemically the infiltrate in different variants of PG and in another neutrophilic dermatosis as Sweet's syndrome. We studied 21 patients with PG, eight with Sweet's syndrome and 20 controls, evaluating skin ...

The association of pyoderma gangrenosum, acne, and suppurative hidradenitis (PASH) has recently been described and suggested to be a new entity within the spectrum of autoinflammatory syndromes, which are characterized by recurrent episodes of sterile inflammation, without circulating autoantibodies and autoreactive T-cells. We conducted an observational study on 5 patients with PASH syndrome, analyzing their clinical features, genetic profile of 10 genes already known to be involved in ...

BACKGROUND: Differences in age, site, and histopathologic subtype exist in basal cell carcinoma (BCC).

OBJECTIVE: To compare the distribution of BCCs in patients younger than 40 with that of those aged 90 and older according to sex, site, and subtype.

METHODS & MATERIALS: One hundred seventy-five BCCs were examined. The site was classified as head and neck, trunk, or limbs and the subtype as nodular, superficial, or morpheic-infiltrative.

RESULTS: Younger exhibited a lower prevalence of ...

Drug-induced lupus erythematosus (DILE) is defined as an entity characterized by clinical manifestations and immunopathological serum findings similar to those of idiopathic lupus but which is temporally related to continuous drug exposure and resolves after discontinuation of the offending drug. Similar to idiopathic lupus, DILE can be divided into systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus (SCLE) and chronic cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CCLE). Based on ...

Pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) and Sweet's syndrome (SS) are two inflammatory skin diseases presenting with painful ulcers and erythematous plaques, respectively; both disorders have a debilitating clinical behaviour and PG is potentially life-threatening. Recently, PG and SS have been included among the autoinflammatory diseases, which are characterized by recurrent episodes of sterile inflammation, without circulating autoantibodies and autoreactive T cells. However, an autoinflammatory ...

The clinical triad of pyoderma gangrenosum (PG), acne and suppurative hidradenitis (PASH) has recently been described as a new disease entity within the spectrum of autoinflammatory syndromes, which are an emerging group of inflammatory diseases distinct from autoimmune, allergic and infectious disorders. PASH syndrome is similar to PAPA (pyogenic arthritis, acne and PG), but it differs in lacking the associated arthritis and on a genetic basis. PAPA syndrome is caused by mutations in a ...

A controlled prospective study of 2165 outpatients undergoing skin surgery was performed to evaluate the utility and the effects of several antibiotic schedules for prophylaxis of wound infections. The patients were divided into four groups. Twenty-three of the 541 group A patients, given no antibiotics, had wound infections. Eight of the 542 group B patients, given systemic antibiotics from immediately after surgery until the third day, had wound infections. Four of the 540 group C ...

Pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) and Sweet’s syndrome (SS) are skin diseases usually presenting with recurrent ulcers and erythematous plaques, respectively. The accumulation of neutrophils in the skin, characteristic of these conditions, led to coin the term of neutrophilic dermatoses to define them. Recently, neutrophilic dermatoses have been included in the group of autoinflammatory diseases, which classically comprises genetically determined forms due to mutations of genes regulating the ...

Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is a skin disease caused by autoantibodies to hemidesmosomal proteins BP180 and BP230, with eosinophils participating in blister formation. Tissue factor (TF), the initiator of coagulation, is embodied within the eosinophil granules and exposed upon activation. We evaluated the coagulation activation in patients with BP (63), chronic urticaria (CU; 20), atopic dermatitis (AD; 14), cutaneous drug reactions (CDRs; six), psoriasis (20), dermatitis herpetiformis (DH; ...

The skin is one of the most common extraintestinal organ system affected in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including both Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. The skin manifestations associated with IBD are polymorphic and can be classified into 4 categories according to their pathophysiology: (1) specific, (2) reactive, (3) associated, and (4) induced by IBD treatment. Cutaneous manifestations are regarded as specific if they share with IBD the same granulomatous ...

The immune system and blood coagulation are simultaneously activated in several inflammatory systemic disorders, such as lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel diseases. Proinflammatory cytokines, such as IL-6 and TNF-alpha, induce the expression of tissue factor, the main initiator of blood coagulation. Activated proteases of coagulation in turn act on protease-activated receptors, inducing the expression of various proinflammatory cytokines. This cross-talk ...

Amicrobial pustulosis of the folds (APF) is a rare cutaneous disease characterized by relapsing sterile pustules frequently associated with autoimmune disorders. Although APF pathophysiology is still undefined, scattered reports suggest involvement of neutrophils. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the role of the skin inflammatory infiltrate, selected multifunctional cytokines and effectors of tissue damage in APF and other neutrophilic dermatoses. We studied, by ...