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Background: Tinea capitis is a common skin disease seen predominantly in children. The standard therapies for this disease are griseofulvin and ketoconazole. nevertheless, these drugs have drawbacks in that hey are only fungistatic and require treatment lot at least 6 weeks. Previous studies with oral terbinatine for the treatment of Tinea capitis have shown that this agent is effective when given for 4 weeks, comparable to an 8-week regimen with griseofulvin. To date there is no data on the use of oral terbinafine in Brazilian children. Objectives: To assess the efficacy. safety and tolerability of oral terbinafine in short-term treatments (1-, 2- and 4-week treatment) of Tinea capitis in children. Patients and methods: One hundred and thirty-two children aged 1-14 years were enrolled in this study, but only 107 were considered for the final efficacy analysis. Diagnosis included clinical assessment and examination by Wood's light. Con- firmation was obtained by direct microscopy and culture for fungus. Terbinafine dosage (125 or 250 mg/day) was adjusted according to patient weight. Efficacy was evaluated both by clinical and mycological assessment. Safety and tolerability variables included data on adverse reaction and clinical laboratory evaluations. Results: Mycological evaluation in the follow-up visit at week 12 showed negative direct microscopy and culture results in 48.6. 60.5 and 69.7% patients in groups 1-, 2- and 4-week, respectively (n.s.). At week 12. 84.8% patients in group 4-week achieved clinical cure with a significant difference compared to groups 1- and 2-week. 54.3 and 60.5%, respectively (P < 0.01). Adverse reactions were present in 4.8, 6.8 and 10.9% of patients in groups I-, 2- and 4-week, respectively, terbinafine was not associated with clinically relevant increases in liver function tests. Conclusions: Terbinafine is an effective, well tolerated and safe antifungal agent for the treatment of Tinea capitis in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report four cases of necrotizing reactions of the Lucio's phenomenon type, an entity rarely observed in Brazil despite the high prevalence of leprosy. Clinical, histopathological and therapeutic aspects are described and compared to those reported in the literature for cases classified as diffuse, non-nodular lepromatous leprosy with Lucio's phenomenon.

Background: Leishmaniasis associated with HIV/AIDS has been reported in the last decade., Case Report: A case of generalized cutaneous leishmaniasis in a patient with AIDS is described. The case is paradoxical in that the cutaneous lesions resemble anergic leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania (L.) amazonensis and Jorge Lobo's disease, but the positive Montenegro test and the clinical improvement with antimonial are more commonly observed in leishmaniasis caused by L.(V.) braziliensis., Comment: The immunosuppression due to HIV/AIDS seen in this patient may explain the dissemination of the lesions, but the positive specific response to leishmanial antigen may explain the good response to the antimonial treatment.

1. We determined the anti-PGL1 levels of 402 individuals from the Ribeirão Preto region since the phenolic glycolipid (PGL1) is a specific Mycobacterium leprae antigen. This group consisted of 47 leprosy patients (26 with the lepromatous form, 16 with the tuberculoid form and 5 with the borderline form), 12 tuberculosis patients, 19 leprosy contacts, and 324 healthy blood donors from the Hemocenter of the University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo. Anti-PGL1 levels were detected by ELISA. 2. Anti-PGL1 levels were normal in patients with tuberculoid and borderline leprosy, in tuberculosis patients and in almost all of the healthy blood donors. Patients with untreated lepromatous leprosy had elevated anti-PGL1 levels while most patients under treatment (9/16) had normal anti-PGL1 levels. Only 3% of blood donors (10/324) had elevated anti-PGL1 levels, but when these individuals were submitted to clinical and bacilloscopic examination no signs of disease were found. To complete the clinical investigation, these 10 subjects were submitted to the Mitsuda reaction which was negative in 3 of them. All of these 10 subjects are being monitored, since they may be at risk to develop leprosy. 3. On the basis of the present data, it seems that ELISA is a potentially important assay for the detection and chemotherapy of subclinical leprosy, permitting the control of epidemic centers of the disease.