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Perifolliculitis capitis abscedens et suffodiens is a rare condition characterised by chronic and recurrent folliculitis and perifolliculitis of the scalp. This slowly progressive suppurative disease affects Africans and African-Americans in addition to Afro-Caribbeans, and almost exclusively males between the ages of 20 and 40 years. It mainly involves the occipital areas and vertex, where it provokes fibrosis and areas of alopecia that, once the inflammation is over, may demonstrate more or less evident scarring. This disease can also be complicated by the onset of squamous cell carcinoma or osteomyelitis.In 1980, Hoffmann called the disease abscedens, i.e. suppurative, because of the initial pus-filled fluctuant nodules, and suffodiens, i.e. undermining, for its tendency to dig abscesses and intercommunicating sinus tracts. Although the aetiology is unknown, its frequent association with acne conglobata and hidradenitis suppurativa suggests that the three diseases share a common basic pathogenetic mechanism in the follicular occlusion. Factors such as reduced polymorphonuclear (PMN) chemotaxic and phagocytic activity may also be involved in its pathogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The acute and chronic cardiotoxicity as well as the cytotoxicity of 4'-deoxy-4'-iodo-doxorubicinol (I-DXRol), the major metabolite of the doxorubicin (DXR) derivative 4'-deoxy-4'-iodo-DXR (I-DXR), were compared with those of I-DXR and DXR. In the acute study, anesthetized rats received i.v. DXR (10 mg/kg), I-DXR (4 mg/kg), or I-DXRol (4 mg/kg) and were monitored for ECG (S alpha T segment and T wave), systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure, the first derivative of the systemic arterial pressure (SA dP/dtmax), and heart rate. Treatments induced a significant widening of the S alpha T segment, but I-DXRol was significantly less toxic than I-DXR or DXR. As compared with control values, DXR induced a marked increase in SBP and DBP and a decrease in SA dP/dtmax, whereas I-DXR and I-DXRol induced modest changes in hemodynamic parameters. In the chronic study, 3 mg/kg DXR given to rats by i.v. bolus once a week for 3 weeks resulted in severe chronic cardiotoxicity that lasted 6 weeks and was characterized by S alpha T-segment widening, T-wave flattening, and severe cardiac histological damage. Doses of 1.2 mg/kg I-DXR and 1.2 and 2.4 mg/kg I-DXRol, given i.v. once a week for 3 weeks, and 3.6 mg/kg I-DXRol given as a single dose were associated with a significant T-wave voltage reduction; I-DXR and 2.4 mg/kg I-DXRol induced significant histological alterations of cardiac tissue as compared with control values, whereas modest alterations of heart tissue were observed after injections of 1.2 and 3.6 mg/kg I-DXRol in three doses and in a single dose, respectively. The cytotoxicity of the three anthracyclines against one glioblastoma cell line and two human small-cell lung cancer lines was similar. Results indicate that the acute cardiotoxicity of I-DXRol is lower than that of I-DXR and DXR, whereas the chronic heart damage is similar to that induced by I-DXR and significantly lower compared than that caused by DXR. Moreover, the cytotoxicity of the metabolite appears to be similar to that of I-DXR and DXR. The lack of additional cardiac toxicity due to I-DXRol further supports the lower overall cardiac toxicity of I-DXR, which retains a cytotoxic activity similar to that of the parent drug. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]