Background: Rosacea is a chronic inflammatory disease which requires treatment to maintain remission. Objective: Recently, the effect of Demodex mites in recurrence of rosacea has been described. Although there is limited data, previous reports have suggested that oral metronidazole demonstrated efficacy in treatment of rosacea. Methods: Fifty-eight Korean patients with rosacea who received treatment with oral minocycline (50 mg twice daily) only or with two-week of oral metronidazole (250 mg thrice daily) were evaluated retrospectively. Their responses were evaluated by Investigator’s Global Assessment (IGA), Clinician’s Erythema Assessment (CEA), and patient’s Global Assessment. The recurrence rate and odds ratio of risk factors for recurrence were also estimated. Results: The combination treatment group reported earlier clinical improvement and lower mean IGA and CEA than the monotherapy group. Approximately 48% of patients with combination treatment did not show relapse within 24 weeks, which is significantly higher than that in the monotherapy group (p=0.042). Conclusion Add-on therapy of oral metronidazole appeared to be a significant protective factor for recurrence of rosacea (p<0.05). This study suggests that oral metronidazole can be added to oral minocycline to reduce relapses in rosacea patients with tolerable safety.

Background: The prevalence of scabies, a contagious parasitic skin disease, has decreased to ＜1% in South Korea.However, an increase in the elderly population has led to occasional outbreaks. This study aimed to analyze the epidemiological changes and clinical features of scabies diagnosed in Ulsan over the past decade. Objective: This study aimed to analyze the epidemiological changes and clinical features of scabies infections diagnosed at a tertiary hospital in Ulsan over the past decade. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study at Ulsan University Hospital that reviewed 235 cases from 2013 to 2022.We analyzed the medical records of patients diagnosed with scabies by dermoscopy and microscopic examination. Results: Among 55,430 patients, 235 were confirmed to have scabies, with an overall prevalence of 0.42%. The highest annual incidence was in 2018 (35 cases), with a subsequent decrease but a gradual increase from 2019 to 2022. The most common infection route was through nursing facilities (32.3%). The elderly (≥70 years) comprised 32.3% cases, and typical clinical manifestations were papules (80.4%) of the trunk and extremities. Eosinophilia was observed in 31.4% inpatients. The mean treatment duration was 29.15 days. Conclusion We report a declining but significant prevalence of scabies in Ulsan, with many cases occurring among the elderly in nursing facilities. This study underscores the need for continued surveillance and education regarding the diagnosis and management of scabies in healthcare and community facilities.

Background: The prevalence of scabies, a contagious parasitic skin disease, has decreased to ＜1% in South Korea.However, an increase in the elderly population has led to occasional outbreaks. This study aimed to analyze the epidemiological changes and clinical features of scabies diagnosed in Ulsan over the past decade. Objective: This study aimed to analyze the epidemiological changes and clinical features of scabies infections diagnosed at a tertiary hospital in Ulsan over the past decade. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study at Ulsan University Hospital that reviewed 235 cases from 2013 to 2022.We analyzed the medical records of patients diagnosed with scabies by dermoscopy and microscopic examination. Results: Among 55,430 patients, 235 were confirmed to have scabies, with an overall prevalence of 0.42%. The highest annual incidence was in 2018 (35 cases), with a subsequent decrease but a gradual increase from 2019 to 2022. The most common infection route was through nursing facilities (32.3%). The elderly (≥70 years) comprised 32.3% cases, and typical clinical manifestations were papules (80.4%) of the trunk and extremities. Eosinophilia was observed in 31.4% inpatients. The mean treatment duration was 29.15 days. Conclusion We report a declining but significant prevalence of scabies in Ulsan, with many cases occurring among the elderly in nursing facilities. This study underscores the need for continued surveillance and education regarding the diagnosis and management of scabies in healthcare and community facilities.

Background: The prevalence of scabies, a contagious parasitic skin disease, has decreased to ＜1% in South Korea.However, an increase in the elderly population has led to occasional outbreaks. This study aimed to analyze the epidemiological changes and clinical features of scabies diagnosed in Ulsan over the past decade. Objective: This study aimed to analyze the epidemiological changes and clinical features of scabies infections diagnosed at a tertiary hospital in Ulsan over the past decade. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study at Ulsan University Hospital that reviewed 235 cases from 2013 to 2022.We analyzed the medical records of patients diagnosed with scabies by dermoscopy and microscopic examination. Results: Among 55,430 patients, 235 were confirmed to have scabies, with an overall prevalence of 0.42%. The highest annual incidence was in 2018 (35 cases), with a subsequent decrease but a gradual increase from 2019 to 2022. The most common infection route was through nursing facilities (32.3%). The elderly (≥70 years) comprised 32.3% cases, and typical clinical manifestations were papules (80.4%) of the trunk and extremities. Eosinophilia was observed in 31.4% inpatients. The mean treatment duration was 29.15 days. Conclusion We report a declining but significant prevalence of scabies in Ulsan, with many cases occurring among the elderly in nursing facilities. This study underscores the need for continued surveillance and education regarding the diagnosis and management of scabies in healthcare and community facilities.

Background: The prevalence of scabies, a contagious parasitic skin disease, has decreased to ＜1% in South Korea.However, an increase in the elderly population has led to occasional outbreaks. This study aimed to analyze the epidemiological changes and clinical features of scabies diagnosed in Ulsan over the past decade. Objective: This study aimed to analyze the epidemiological changes and clinical features of scabies infections diagnosed at a tertiary hospital in Ulsan over the past decade. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study at Ulsan University Hospital that reviewed 235 cases from 2013 to 2022.We analyzed the medical records of patients diagnosed with scabies by dermoscopy and microscopic examination. Results: Among 55,430 patients, 235 were confirmed to have scabies, with an overall prevalence of 0.42%. The highest annual incidence was in 2018 (35 cases), with a subsequent decrease but a gradual increase from 2019 to 2022. The most common infection route was through nursing facilities (32.3%). The elderly (≥70 years) comprised 32.3% cases, and typical clinical manifestations were papules (80.4%) of the trunk and extremities. Eosinophilia was observed in 31.4% inpatients. The mean treatment duration was 29.15 days. Conclusion We report a declining but significant prevalence of scabies in Ulsan, with many cases occurring among the elderly in nursing facilities. This study underscores the need for continued surveillance and education regarding the diagnosis and management of scabies in healthcare and community facilities.

Background: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease, wherein macrophages play a key role. An imbalance in transition from the classical activation (M1) to alternative activation (M2) phenotype in macrophages contributes to development of persistent inflammation. However, the role of M2 macrophages in disease severity of psoriasis is not yet elucidated. Objective: This study was performed to investigate the expression of pan-macropahge marker cluster of differentiation (CD) 68 and M2 marker CD163 in lesional and non-lesional skin samples of patients with psoriasis and determine the relationship of their expression to the disease severity of psoriasis. Methods: A retrospective study was performed using 21 lesional and 13 non-lesional skin samples from 21 patients with psoriasis. We reviewed the clinical information and evaluated CD68 and CD163 expression in 34 skin samples via immunohistochemical staining. Results: Lesional skin showed significantly higher expression of CD68 and CD163 than non-lesional skin. Notably, CD163 expression was negatively correlated with clinical severity. Conclusion CD163-expressing M2 macrophages are associated with a low severity of psoriasis.

Pervanadate, a complex of vanadate and H2O2, has an insulin mimetic effect, and acts as an inhibitor of protein tyrosine phosphatase. Pervanadate-induced phospholipase D (PLD) activation is known to be dependent on the tyrosine phosphorylation of cellular proteins and protein kinase C (PKC) activation, and yet underlying molecular mechanisms are not clearly understood. Here, we investigated the signaling pathway of pervanadate-induced PLD activation in Rat2 fibroblasts. Pervanadate increased PLD activity in dose- and time- dependent manner. Protein tyrosine kinase inhibitor, genistein, blocked PLD activation. Interestingly, AG-1478, a specific inhibitor of the tyrosine kinase activity of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) blocked not only the PLD activation completely but also phosphorylation of p38 mitogen- activated protein kinase (MAPK). However, AG-1295, an inhibitor specific for the tyrosine kinase activity of pletlet drived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) did not show any effect on the PLD activation by pervanadate. We further found that pervanadate increased phosphorylation levels of p38, extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK). SB203580, a p38 MAPK inhibitor, blocked the PLD activation completely. However, the inhibitions of ERK by the treatment of PD98059 or of JNK by the overexpression of JNK interacting peptide JBD did not show any effect on pervanadate-induced PLD activation. Inhibition or down-regulation of PKC did not alter the pervanadate-induced PLD activation in Rat2 cells. Thus, these results suggest that pervanadate-induced PLD activation is coupled to the transactivation of EGFR by pervanadate resulting in the activation of p38 MAP kinase.
Animals ; Cell Line ; Enzyme Activation/drug effects ; Fibroblasts ; Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases/metabolism ; Phospholipase D/*metabolism ; Rats ; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor/*agonists/*metabolism ; Vanadates/*pharmacology ; src-Family Kinases/metabolism