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A letter to the editor is presented in response to an article related to Kaposi's sarcoma which was published in a previous issue of the periodical.

Background Urticarial patients are usually treated with oral antihistamines and 50% respond well to this treatment; however, the other 50% do not respond to antihistamines and need a more aggressive approach, such as short or prolonged courses of oral corticosteroids or cyclosporine. Potential adverse effects, however, limit this regimen. Objective To determine the efficacy of mycophenolate mofetil, an immunomodulatory drug, in the treatment of patients with severe chronic urticaria. Methods In an open-label, uncontrolled trial, nine patients with documented chronic urticaria who had been treated previously with antihistamines and/or corticosteroids with poor response were enrolled in the trial. After 2 weeks of baseline assessment, patients received 1000 mg twice daily of mycophenolate mofetil for 12 weeks. Improvement was monitored using the urticarial activity score, which is the sum of the wheal number score and itch severity score. Patients also recorded their daily need for other medications to control allergic symptoms. Results There was a significant decrease in the urticarial activity score relative to the baseline assessment at the end of the study period ( P < 0.001). All patients were able to stop prednisone on completion of the study. There was also a decrease in antihistamine dose, but this did not reach statistical significance. Treatment with mycophenolate mofetil was not associated with significant adverse effects. Conclusions Mycophenolate mofetil may be a valuable and safe treatment for patients with chronic urticaria who do not respond to antihistamines and/or corticosteroids, and who require aggressive treatment to control their disease symptoms. Further controlled clinical studies are needed to determine its value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Chronic hand and foot eczema (CHFE), a prevalent debilitating disorder affecting approximately 15% of the population, presents a socioeconomic and psychosocial burden for patients and often follows a chronic course, refractory to conventional therapies. Thus, a large need exists for more effective therapeutics; the excimer laser (308 nm) is effective for some inflammatory skin diseases, but its efficacy has not been evaluated for CHFE. Methods The study is a retrospective chart review conducted on 30 patients with recalcitrant CHFE (19 with hand involvement, four with foot involvement, and seven with both) treated twice weekly with excimer laser (308 nm) single wavelength ultraviolet (UV)B radiation between January 2013 and December 2014. Results Improvements in clinical scores included a 69% reduction in average physician's global assessment (PGA) scores (from 2.77 at baseline to 0.87 after treatment, P < 0.0001) with a parallel reduction in average modified total lesion/symptom scores of 70% (from 10.2 to 3.1, P < 0.0001). Only mild sunburn-like reactions were observed. Conclusion This report evaluates excimer laser for patients with refractory CHFE and shows excellent and sustained efficacy for this treatment. Compared to other UV therapies, excimer laser offers lower cumulative doses of UV radiation by targeting specific areas. This effective treatment should be considered alone or in combination with other established or newer therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]