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Abstract: BACKGROUND: Narrow-band UVB (NB-UVB) has been shown to be one of the most effective treatment modalities for psoriasis. Tazarotene, a known effective anti-psoriatic modality, when combined with NB-UVB may enhance the therapeutic success. OBJECTIVE: To study clinical efficacy and safety of combination of NB-UVB with topical tazarotene 0.05% gel in psoriasis. METHOD: Thirty patients with plaque psoriasis having symmetrical lesions were enrolled for 12 weeks. All patients were instructed to apply tazarotene gel on target plaque on left side of body once daily. In addition, the whole body was irradiated with NB-UVB twice weekly. Efficacy was assessed by target plaque scoring and number of treatment sessions for clearance. RESULT: Our study resulted in 3 key findings: Firstly, therapeutic efficacy of NB-UVB was enhanced by addition of tazarotene. This enhanced efficacy was more apparent in decreasing scaling and thickness as compared to decrease in erythema. Secondly, combination therapy showed faster clearance of target plaques, with reduction in mean number of treatment sessions. Thirdly, mean cumulative NB-UVB dose needed to achieve clearance of target plaques was significantly reduced with combination therapy. STUDY LIMITATIONS: The study was not randomized or controlled, but an open-label trial. The study period was relatively short, i.e., 12 weeks, without any follow-up period. CONCLUSION: Tazarotene gel significantly enhances the therapeutic efficacy of NB-UVB irradiation with faster clearance and without serious side effects.

Abstract: Background: Narrow-band UVB is the most innovative steroid sparing treatment in atopic dermatitis. There are studies showing efficacy of Narrow-band UVB in childhood atopic dermatitis, but there is lack of clinical trials in the literature determining the length of remission. Therefore, we sought to highlight its efficacy, safety and its post-treatment efficacy in childhood atopic dermatitis. Objective: To assess the clinical efficacy, safety of Narrow-band UVB in the treatment of paediatric atopic dermatitis and length of remission during 2 years of post-treatment follow-up. Methods: Thirty children (4-14 years) having moderate to severe AD (SCORAD index > 25) were enrolled for 12 weeks. Narrow-band UVB phototherapy was administered twice a week on non-consecutive days for three months. SCORAD index was calculated by the same dermatologist at baseline, 6th, 12th, 18th and 24th treatment session. Secondary outcomes were measured using visual analog scale for pruritus and sleep loss. Patients were also followed-up for 2 years to know the length of remission after end of therapy. Results: There was a significant reduction in SCORAD index at 6th, 12th, 18th and 24th treatment session in comparison to baseline. This improvement in SCORAD was also maintained during the 2 years of post-treatment follow-up period. Consequently, pruritus and sleep loss improved significantly from baseline to end of therapy and even during the 1st and 2nd year of follow-up. Study limitation: Open-label trial without control group. Conclusions: Narrow-band UVB is an efficacious and safe modality of treatment in childhood atopic dermatitis with good therapeutic index and minimal side effects.

Abstract: Dyshidrosiform pemphigoid is an acquired autoimmune variant of bullous pemphigoid with persistent vesicobullous eruptions localized on the palms or soles, or both. It generally occurs in the elderly and is rarely reported in childhood. Hereby, we describe the first case of dyshidrosiform pemphigoid in a 12-year-old child, which was limited to the dorsal hands and treated successfully with dapsone (diaminodiphenyl sulfone). Along with this report, we also review the clinical features of various types of dyshidrosiform pemphigoid.

Recently, the concept of statistical convergence for multiple sequences of fuzzy numbers has been studied by Kumar et al. This motivate us to extend the idea of $\mathcal{I}$-convergence to sequences of fuzzy numbers of multiplicity greater than two.

In this paper, we aim to generalize the notion of statistical convergence for double sequences on probabilistic normed spaces with the help of two nondecreasing sequences of positive real numbers $\lambda=(\lambda_{n})$ and $\mu = (\mu_{n})$ such that each tending to zero, also $\lambda_{n+1}\leq \lambda_{n}+1, \lambda_{1}=1,$ and $\mu_{n+1}\leq \mu_{n}+1, \mu_{1}=1.$ We also define generalized statistically Cauchy double sequences on PN space and establish the Cauchy convergence criteria in these spaces.

In this work we define $(\lambda, \mu)-$statistical summability and $(V, \lambda, \mu)-$\\summability of order $\tilde{\alpha}$ for double sequences and obtain some relations between these summability methods. We demonstrate examples which shows our method of summability is more general for double sequences.

In this work, porous tubular scaffolds were prepared from a novel water soluble aldehyde-functionalized chitosan (ALDCHIT) hydrogel, which was obtained by dissolving this chitosan derivative in water and using oxidized dextrose (OXDEXT) as the crosslinking agent at different ALDCHIT:OXDEXT mole ratios (10:1, 10:2 and 10:4). By increasing the amount of OXDEXT in respect to ALDCHIT the hydrogels became more rigid and could absorb more than 200% of its weight in water. Since the ALDCHIT:OXDEXT 10:4 was the most stable hydrogel, its ability to form porous tubular scaffolds was investigated. The tubular scaffolds were prepared by the lyophilization method, where the orientation of the pores was controlled by exposing either the internal or the external surface of the frozen hydrogel during the sublimation step. When only the inner surface of the frozen hydrogel was exposed, tubular scaffolds with a highly porous lumen and a sealed outer surface were obtained, where the orientation of the pores, their sizes and interconnectivity seem to be optimum for vascular tissue engineering application.