BACKGROUND: Generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP), a rare and recurrent autoinflammatory disease, imposes a substantial burden on patients and society. Awareness of GPP in China remains limited. METHODS: This cross-sectional survey, conducted between September 2021 and May 2023 across 14 hospitals in China, included GPP patients of all ages and disease phases. Data collected encompassed demographics, clinical characteristics, economic impact, disease severity, quality of life, and treatment-related complications. Risk factors for GPP recurrence were analyzed. RESULTS: Among 127 patients (female/male ratio = 1.35:1), the mean age of disease onset was 25 years (1st quartile [Q1]-3rd quartile [Q3]: 11-44 years); 29.2% had experienced GPP for more than 10 years. Recurrence occurred in 75.6% of patients, and nearly half reported no identifiable triggers. Younger age at disease onset ( P  = 0.021) and transitioning to plaque psoriasis ( P  = 0.022) were associated with higher recurrence rates. The median diagnostic delay was 8 months (Q1-Q3: 2-41 months), and 32.3% of patients reported misdiagnoses. Comorbidities were present in 53.5% of patients, whereas 51.1% experienced systemic complications during treatment. Depression and anxiety affected 84.5% and 95.6% of patients, respectively. During GPP flares, the median Dermatology Life Quality Index score was 19.0 (Q1-Q3: 13.0-23.5). This score showed significant differences between patients with and without systemic symptoms; it demonstrated correlations with both depression and anxiety scores. Treatment costs caused financial hardship in 55.9% of patients, underscoring the burden associated with GPP. CONCLUSIONS The substantial disease and economic burdens among Chinese GPP patients warrant increased attention. Patients with early onset disease and those transitioning to plaque psoriasis require targeted interventions to mitigate the high recurrence risk.
Humans ; Male ; Female ; Psoriasis/pathology* ; Adult ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Adolescent ; Child ; Young Adult ; Quality of Life ; Middle Aged ; China/epidemiology* ; Recurrence ; Risk Factors ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; East Asian People

Traditional Chinese medicine fumigation device is the carrier of traditional Chinese medicine fumigation treatment. In recent years, with the rapid development of new technology and new materials, the development of fumigation device changes with each passing day, and a variety of new products continue to emerge. However, at present, the lack of corresponding evaluation norms, resulting in some difficulties in the registration, marketing, quality control, evaluation scale and other aspects of the product. Some products have many disadvantages in clinical use. From the perspective of technical review, this paper elaborates and analyzes the main concerns in technical review, such as product structure, main risks, performance requirements, clinical evaluation, etc., in order to provide a basis for the design, development, production, registration, use and post-marketing supervision of the devices.
Fumigation ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Marketing ; Quality Control

Despite growing prevalence and incidence, the management of gout remains suboptimal. The intermittent nature of the gout makes the long-term urate-lowering therapy (ULT) particularly important for gout management. However, patients are reluctant to take medication day after day to manage incurable occasional gout flares, and suffer from possible long-term toxicity. Therefore, a safe and easy-to-operate drug delivery system with simple preparation for the long-term management of gout is very necessary. Here, a chitosan-containing sustained-release microneedle system co-loaded with colchicine and uricase liposomes were fabricated to achieve this goal. This microneedle system was confirmed to successfully deliver the drug to the skin and maintain a one-week drug retention. Furthermore, its powerful therapeutic potency to manage gout was investigated in both acute gouty and chronic gouty models. Besides, the drug co-delivery system could help avoid long-term daily oral colchicine, a drug with a narrow therapeutic index. This system also avoids mass injection of uricase by improving its stability, enhancing the clinical application value of uricase. In general, this two-drug system reduces the dosage of uricase and colchicine and improves the patient's compliance, which has a strong clinical translation.

Growth hormone deficiency (GHD) has become a serious healthcare burden, and presents a huge impact on the physical and mental health of patients. Here, we developed an actively separated microneedle patch (PAA/NaHCO₃-Silk MN) based on silk protein for sustained release of recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH). Silk protein, as a friendly carrier material for proteins, could be constructed in mild full-water conditions and ensure the activity of rhGH. After manually pressing PAA/NaHCO₃-Silk MN patch to skin for 1 min, active separation is achieved by absorbing the interstitial fluid (ISF) to trigger HCO₃ ^‒ in the active backing layer to produce carbon dioxide gas (CO₂). In rats, the MN patch could maintain the sustained release of rhGH for more than 7 days, and produce similar effects as daily subcutaneous (S.C.) injections of rhGH in promoting height and weight with well tolerated. Moreover, the PAA/NaHCO₃-Silk MN patch with the potential of painless self-administration, does not require cold chain transportation and storage possess great economic benefits. Overall, the PAA/NaHCO₃-Silk MN patch can significantly improve patient compliance and increase the availability of drugs, meet current unmet clinical needs, improve clinical treatment effects of GHD patients.

Bullous pemphigoid (BP) can be comorbid with a variety of immune diseases, such as immune skin diseases (psoriasis, vitiligo, alopecia areata and various other immune bullous diseases) , immune digestive diseases (inflammatory bowel disease, primary biliary cirrhosis) , autoimmune thyroid diseases, autoimmune rheumatic diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, dermatomyositis, scleroderma and systemic lupus erythematosus) , immune renal diseases (immune nephropathy, renal allograft rejection) and acquired hemophilia A. The above comorbidities markedly affect the quality of life of and treatment options for patients. This review elaborates on currently reported immune diseases associated with BP and their concomitant mechanisms.

Objective To analyze the disease constitution,accuracy of clinical and pathological diagnoses of skin biopsy samples in Peking Union Medical College Hospital.Methods A total of 29987 patients subjected to skin biopsy were collected from Department of Dermatology,Peking Union Medical College Hospital from June 2010 to November 2018,and clinical and histopathological diagnoses of these skin biopsy samples were analyzed retrospectively.Results According to the results of histopathological diagnosis,confirmed diagnoses of these patients could be classified into 33 categories and 242 kinds.Common disease categories included epidermal tumors (2931 cases,9.77％),connective tissue diseases (2809 cases,9.37％),melanocytic tumors (2078 cases,6.93％),erythematous scaly pustular dermatoses (1376 cases,4.59％),lichenoid dermatoses (1291cases,4.31％),allergic or eczematous skin diseases (1282 cases,4.28％)and infectious skin diseases (1156 cases,3.86％).Common skin diseases included scleroderma (1887 cases,6.29％),pigmented nevus (1755 cases,5.85％),seborrheic keratosis (1136 cases,3.79％),eczema (1089 cases,3.63％),psoriasis (881 cases,2.94％),lichen planus (867 cases,2.89％),lupus erythematosus (638 cases,2.13％),pemphigus (549 cases,1.83％),and basal cell carcinoma (501 cases,1.67％).Poor consistency was observed between clinical diagnosis and histopathological diagnosis of lichen planus,bullous pemphigoid,granuloma annulare and hypereosinophilic dermatitis.Conclusions Common disease categories of the skin biopsy samples in Peking Union Medical College Hospital were epidermal tumors,connective tissue diseases,melanocytic tumors,erythematous scaly pustular dermatoses,lichenoid dermatoses,and allergic or eczematous skin diseases.Poor consistency was observed between clinical and pathological diagnosis in some skin diseases,and understanding of these diseases should be improved.

Objective To investigate changes in thickness of the skin and muscular layer during the treatment with botulinum toxin A injections in patients with glabellar lines.Methods Twenty-six subjects with moderate to severe glabellar lines were enrolled into this study,who received botulinum toxin A injections in Peking Union Medical College Hospital from August 2017 to February 2018.Before the injections,4 and 16 weeks after the injections,thickness of the dermis at the injection site was measured by using 50 MHz high-frequency ultrasound,and full thickness of the skin and thickness of the muscular layer were measured with 20 MHz high-frequency ultrasound.Repeated measures analysis of variance,paired ttest and Bonferroni method were used to compare the pretreatment and posttreatment tissue thicknesses measured by using high-frequency ultrasound.Results Before the injections,the thickness of the dermis,full thickness of the skin,thickness of the muscular layer were 2.01 ± 0.48,4.32 ± 0.73 and 4.51 ± 0.67 mm respectively.No significant difference was observed among the pretreatment,4-and 16-week posttreatment thickness of the dermis (F =1.94,P =0.199),while there were significant differences among the pretreatment,4-and 16-week posttreatment full thickness of the skin and thickness of the muscular layer (F =6.28,24.19,P =0.020,＜ 0.001 respectively).Four weeks after the injections,the full thickness of the skin significantly increased (4.88 ± 0.93 mm,t =3.72,P =0.004),while the thickness of the muscular layer significantly decreased (3.82 ± 0.79 mm,t =4.65,P =0.001)compared with the pretreatment thicknesses.Sixteen weeks after the injections,the full thickness of the skin (4.61 ± 0.73 mm) and thickness of the muscular layer (4.38 ± 0.90 mm) did not significantly differ from those before and 4 weeks after the injections (all P ＞ 0.016 7).Conclusions Botulinum toxin A injections can change the thickness of the subcutaneous tissue and muscular layer.High-frequency ultrasound can be applied to the evaluation of efficacy and to follow-up after the treatment of glabellar lines with botulinum toxin A injections.

Objective To investigate the role of Toll-like receptor 4 ( TLR4 ) and NOD-like receptor 3 (NLRP3)inflammasome in the liver injury of acute necrotizing pancreatitis (ANP) rat with obesity. Methods Twenty-four SD rats were randomly divided into normal group, ANP group, obesity group and obesity ANP group. The obesity rat model was established by continuously feeding high fat diet and the ANP model was induced by retrograde infusion of 5％ sodium taurocholate into the biliopancreatic duct. Rats were killed at 12 h after model establishment, and automatic biochemical immune analyzer were used for detecting serum AMY, LIP, ALT, AST, TG and TC. Pathological changes of pancreas and liver tissue samples were observed by miscroscopy and pathological score was recorded. The levels of MPO, CD68 , TLR4, NLRP3 and IL-1βin liver tissue were detected by immunofluorescence, and NF-κB and caspase-3 in liver tissue were detected by immunohistochemistry. Results The serum ALT and AST in obesity ANP group were significantly increased than those in ANP group (233. 00 ± 34. 44 U/L vs 102. 83 ± 8. 90 U/L,388. 00 ± 41. 60 U/L vs 282. 00 ± 21. 06 U/L);and liver pathologic score was also significantly higher than ANP group (6. 66 ± 1. 21 vs 3. 33 ± 1. 03);and CD68 + /TLR4 +, CD68 + /NLRP3 +, TLR4 + /NLRP3 +, MPO, NF-κB, IL-1β and caspase-3 level were all greatly higher in obesity ANP than those in ANP group, respectively (24. 16 ± 1. 47 vs 6. 66 ± 1. 21, 25. 00 ± 2. 60 vs 7. 00 ± 1. 41, 14. 16 ± 1. 47 vs 5. 50 ± 1. 04, 35. 33 ± 6. 88 vs 20. 83 ± 2. 48, 58. 80 ± 6. 75 vs 37. 63 ± 2. 96, 50. 00 ± 2. 36 vs 35. 00 ± 2. 82, 66. 00 ± 4. 04 vs 55. 00 ± 2. 60); and all the differences were statistically significant (all P<0. 05). Conclusions Liver injury was more severe in ANP rats with obesity, which may be related to the fact that obesity may enhance the activation of TLR4/NLRP3 signal pathway and result in the release of more inflammatory factors.

Objective: To explore the application value of interferon gamma release assay (IGRA) combined with tuberculin skin test (TST) in diagnosis of intraocular tuberculosis and latent tuberculosis infection. Methods: One hundred and ten patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (observation group) and 80 healthy persons (control group) in Hebei Chest Hospital from January 2016 to December 2018 were selected. Among the 110 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, intraocular tuberculosis was in 35 cases, and latent tuberculosis infection was in 75 cases. All the patients were examined by ocular secretions IGRA and TST. Results: The positive rates of IGRA and TST in observation group were significantly higher than those in control group: 88.18% (97/110) vs. 11.25% (9/80) and 83.64% (92/110) vs. 41.25% (33/80), and there were statistical differences (χ² = 113.138 and 36.971, P<0.01). The positive rate of IGRA in patients with intraocular tuberculosis was significantly higher than that in latent tuberculosis infection: 97.14% (34/35) vs. 84.00% (63/75), and there was statistical difference (χ² = 3.955, P<0.05). There was no statistical difference in the positive rate of TST between the patients with intraocular tuberculosis and patients with latent tuberculosis infection: 91.43% (32/35) vs. 80.00% (60/75), χ² = 2.277, P>0.05. The consistency rate of IGRA and TST was 89.90% (Kappa = 0.867, P>0.05). The sensitivity of IGRA combined with TST was significantly higher than the single detection of IGRA and TST (97.83% vs. 88.18% and 83.64%), while the specificity of IGRA combined with TST was significantly lower than the single detection of IGRA and TST (61.11% vs. 92.31% and 83.33%), and there were statistical differences (P<0.05). The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis result showed that the area under curve of IGRA in diagnosis of intraocular tuberculosis and latent tuberculosis infection was 0.781, area under curve of TST was 0.604, and area under curve of IGRA combined with TST was 0.679. Conclusions IGRA has high value in the diagnosis of intraocular tuberculosis and latent tuberculosis infection, and can be used as a diagnostic means of intraocular tuberculosis.

Objective To investigate the correlations of the serum level of interleukin-21 (IL-21) with anti-BP 180 antibodies,peripheral eosinophil level,bullous pemphigoid disease area index (BPDAI)in patients with bullous pemphigoid (BP).Methods A total of 31 patients with bullous pemphigoid and 31 healthy controls were enrolled into this study.Blood samples were collected from all the subjects,and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was performed to detect the serum level of IL-21 and serum titer of anti-BP180 antibodies.BPDAI was assessed among 13 patients,and the correlation of the IL-21 level with anti-BP180 antibody titers,eosinophil count and BPDAI were analyzed.Results No significant difference in the serum level of IL-21 was observed between the patients (M [P25-P75]:255.28 [156.19-361.59] ng/L) and healthy controls (150.47 [72.4-268.73] ng/L,P =0.14).There was no correlation between the serum level of IL-21 and serum titer of anti-BP180 antibodies (82.98 [26.82-132.92] U/ml,rs =0.18,P =0.332).Among the 27 BP patients who underwent blood cell count,no correlation was found between the serum levels of IL-21 and whole-blood eosinophil counts (rs =0.104,P =0.606).Among the 13 BP patients who underwent assessment of BPDAI,there was no correlation between the serum levels of IL-21 and BPDAI scores (rs =0.233,P =0.464).Conclusion The IL-21 level is uncorrelated with anti-BP 180 antibody level,peripheral eosinophil level or BPDAI in patients with BP.