Adnan Görgülü

Effects and side-effects of spironolactone therapy in women with acne

Background and aims  Androgen hormones play an important role in the pathogenesis of acne. Despite the demonstrated effects, spironolactone, an androgen receptor blocker, is not commonly used to treat acne. We planned an open‐labelled, prospective study to evaluate the effects and side‐effects of spironolactone therapy in women with acne.

The treatment of common warts with infrared coagulation.

Treatment of warts can involve medical and surgical methods. Infrared coagulation is a surgical method very rarely used in the treatment of warts. We planned an open‐labeled prospective study to research the effect of infrared coagulation in the treatment of common warts, comparing it with electrocoagulation, and discussing its applicability as an alternative therapy regimen. Eighteen patients with common warts were included in this study. There were 49 warts of various sizes (1 mm to 1 cm) in these 18 patients. Twenty‐seven warts were treated with infrared coagulation, and 22 warts were treated with electrocoagulation. Sixteen patients were treated with both infrared coagulation and electrocoagulation; two patients were treated with only infrared coagulation. The patients were followed‐up for six months after treatment. Changes in sizes of warts, healing times, and cure rates were compared by Mann‐Whitney U test. The mean healing time was 35.5 ± 5.7 days with infrared coagulation and 32.9 ± 4.0 days with electrocoagulation. There was not any significant difference between healing times (p>0.05). Bacterial infection was seen on seven (31.8%) warts treated with electrocoagulation, but no side effects were seen with infrared coagulation. There was a significant difference between side effect rates in two groups (p<0.01). Nine (33.3%) of the warts treated with infrared coagulation and seven (31.8%) of the warts treated with electrocoagulation recurred in the six‐month follow‐up period. The overall cure rates at the end of the follow‐up period were 66.7% and 68.2% respectively. There was not any significant difference between the cure rates in the two groups (P>0.05). We conclude that infrared coagulation is a safe and cheap method and should be kept in mind as an alternative modality for the treatment of common warts.

Lack of Association Between Toll-like Receptor 2 Polymorphisms (R753Q and A-16934T) and Atopic Dermatitis in Children from Thrace Region of Turkey.

Background: Atopic dermatitis is the most common chronic inflammatory skin disease. A complex interaction of both genetic and environmental factors is thought to contribute to the disease. Aims: To evaluate whether single nucleotide polymorphisms in the TLR2 gene c.2258C>T (R753Q) (rs5743708) and TLR2 c.-148+1614T>A (A-16934T) (rs4696480) (NM_0032643) are associated with atopic dermatitis in Turkish children. Study Design: Case-control study. Methods: The study was conducted on 70 Turkish children with atopic dermatitis aged 0.5-18 years. The clinical severity of atopic dermatitis was evaluated by the severity scoring of atopic dermatitis index. Serum total IgE levels, specific IgE antibodies to inhalant and food allergens were measured in both atopic dermatitis patients and controls, skin prick tests were done on 70 children with atopic dermatitis. Genotyping for TLR2 (R753Q and A-16934T) single nucleotide polymorphisms was performed in both atopic dermatitis patients and controls. Results: Cytosine-cytosine and cytosin-thymine genotype frequencies of the TLR2 R753Q single nucleotide polymorphism in the atopic dermatitis group were determined as being 98.6% and 1.4%, cytosine allele frequency for TLR2 R753Q single nucleotide polymorphism was determined as 99.29% and the thymine allele frequency was 0.71%, thymine-thymine, thymine-adenine, and adenine-adenine genotype frequencies of the TLR2 A-16934T single nucleotide polymorphism were 24.3%, 44.3%, and 31.4%. The thymine allele frequency for the TLR2 A-16934T single nucleotide polymorphism in the atopic dermatitis group was 46.43%, and the adenine allele frequency was 53.57%, respectively. There was not statistically significant difference between the groups for all investigated polymorphisms (p>0.05). For all single nucleotide polymorphisms studied, allelic distribution was analogous among atopic dermatitis patients and controls, and no significant statistical difference was observed. No homozygous carriers of the TLR2 R753Q single nucleotide polymorphism were found in the atopic dermatitis and control groups. Conclusion: The TLR2 (R753Q and A-16934T) single nucleotide polymorphisms are not associated with atopic dermatitis in a group of Turkish patients.