Skin & Allergy News articles from December 2008

Skin & Allergy News archives from December 2008

More dermal filler safety data needed.(News)
December 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] GAITHERSBURG, MD. -- Dermal filler labels should be updated more frequently to reflect safety concerns as they come up, and such new information should be communicated more clearly and immediately to physicians and...

Melanoma linked to solar elastosis in two studies: solar elastosis present in majority of cases.(News)
December 1, 2008... SAN FRANCISCO -- Sun exposure was associated with an increased risk for cutaneous melanoma in two studies, but more research is needed to prove a causal relationship, investigators agreed. The two retrospective studies considered the...

Physician fee rule gives 1.1% raise, plus bonuses.(News)
December 1, 2008... Physicians will have the potential to gain as much as a 5.1% increase in their Medicare payments next year, according to a final rule issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The projected pay raise is a combination of the...

Nanoparticle emulsion may speed healing of cold sores.(News)
December 1, 2008... WASHINGTON -- A novel topical antiviral nanoemulsion reduced the time to healing of cold sores by more than I day in a phase IIB study of patients with recurrent herpes labialis. The lotion, called NB-001, is an oil-in-water emulsion...

Biologicals likely to prompt regulatory action.(News)
December 1, 2008... Biological medicinal agents have a 14% probability of prompting regulatory action because of safety concerns within 3 years of approval, and a 29% probabiliry within 10 years, according to a report on such actions in the United States and...

Feds push e-prescribing with Medicare bonuses.(News)
December 1, 2008... BOSTON -- "E-prescribing saves lives, it saves money, and it's rime we implement it," according to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. Streamlining the bloated health care system "is an economic imperative for our country. We have...

ICD-10 transition carries big price tag for doctors.(News)
December 1, 2008... The federal government's plan to transition from the ICD-9-CM diagnosis and procedure code set to the ICD-10 by 2011 could cost physicians big bucks, according to a cost analysis commissioned by the Medical Group Management Association and...

Intervention cuts indoor tanning among women.(News)
December 1, 2008... Appearance-focused interventions may be an effective approach to deterring young women from indoor tanning. Despite research that points to tanning as a risk factor for melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma, the indoor tanning (IT) industry...

Foundation names its top practitioner.(News)(Dermatology Foundation honours Dr. Anne Weissman Lucky )(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... The Dermatology Foundation has named Dr. Anne Weissman Lucky its Practitioner of the Year. This honor recognizes a dermatologist whose teaching, research, and practice have resulted in the highest level of care. A 1970 graduate of the Yale...

HPV vaccine not tied to serious adverse events.(News)
December 1, 2008... ATLANTA -- Postlicensure safety monitoring by three national vaccine safety systems indicates that, in the more than 2 years since the human papillomavirus vaccine was licensed, serious adverse events have been rare and have not been...

Dermatologist receives award for volunteer services.(News)
December 1, 2008... The Dermatology Foundation has presented its prestigious Clark W. Finnerud Award to Robert Katz, M.D. This award recognizes a dermatologist whose volunteer service as a teacher and a practitioner embodies the highest ideals of the specialty,...

Health reform '09: major overhaul--or not.(News)
December 1, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Can President-elect Barack Obama really shepherd through major health reform? Not until the Medicare physician payment system gets fixed, according to Robert Laszewski. "How do you plan a health care budget in Medicare and the...

Leaving Ohio.(Under My Skin)(Personal account)
December 1, 2008... "Why, oh why, oh why, oh," my mother used to sing when I was a kid, "Why did I ever leave Ohio?" That's one of those sentimental home-state songs, like "The Missouri Waltz," "Stars Fell on Alabama," "I Love New York," and "See the USA in Your...

Beware of 'Trojan horse marketing'.(Guest Editorial)
December 1, 2008... For cosmetic physicians, our most important resource is our patient base. We spend years honing our skills so that we can provide the highest quality services, and then we invest significant capital in attracting and retaining out patients. ...

Barrier repair products.(Cosmeceutical Critique)
December 1, 2008... Cold atmospheric temperatures lead to lower humidity. In such conditions, water is more likely to evaporate from the skin, particularly in individuals with an impaired skin barrier. With the arrival of winter, a discussion of the importance of...

Ask about filler use before injecting new patients.(Aesthetic Dermatology)
December 1, 2008... LAS VEGAS -- Time after time, Dr. Martin Braun encounters new patients in his Vancouver, B.C.-based practice who have undergone previous cosmetic filler treatments in Europe as well as Asia, but who have no idea what product was used. ...

Research Institute to study the genetics of skin appearance.(Aesthetic Dermatology)
December 1, 2008... Within the next 5 years, researchers at the University of Miami's newly launched Cosmetic Medicine and Research Institute hope to make a major genetic breakthrough related to skin appearance. Dr. Leslie Baumann, a cosmetic dermatologist who...

Patients are seeking less-invasive fat removal.
December 1, 2008... LAS VEGAS -- Tumescent liposuction may be the current preferred method for removing unwanted fat, but laser lipolysis and other minimally invasive innovations may be the next frontier in body contouring. "The toned body look is the new...

Expert endorses low-dose lidocaine for lipo.(Aesthetic Dermatology)
December 1, 2008... LAS VEGAS -- When it comes to lidocaine concentration in tumescent local anesthesia for liposuction, how low can you go? The recommended dose in the medical literature ranges from 500 to 1,500 mg per 1,000 mL of saline, but in Dr. Loek...

Liposuction for breast reduction proves effective.(Aesthetic Dermatology)
December 1, 2008... LAS VEGAS -- Breast reduction by liposuction using tumescent local anesthesia is a safe and effective procedure, results from a study of 131 patients showed. The patients ranged in age from 16 to 77 years and their average age was 45...

Stasis dermatitis may present as single lesion.(Cutaneous Oncology)
December 1, 2008... SAN FRANCISCO -- It is not uncommon for stasis dermatitis to present as a solitary lesion with no history of venous insufficiency, but it is uncommon for physicians to correctly diagnose it. Thirty-three (7%) of 483 cases of stasis...

Ontak solution for IV injection.(New & Approved)
December 1, 2008... Ontak Solution for IV Injection (denileukin diftitox, Eisai Inc.) A genetically engineered cytotoxin converted to full approval by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of persistent or recurrent cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) with...

Leukemia may relapse to skin in rare cases.(Cutaneous Oncology)(Case study)
December 1, 2008... SAN FRANCISCO -- A rare case of relapsing leukemia cutis appeared only in the skin, in a patient with no evidence of circulating leukemia whose bone marrow appeared to have responded completely to previous treatment. A 45-year-old patient...

Phototherapy may shed light on chemoprevention.(Cutaneous Oncology)
December 1, 2008... LAS VEGAS -- Photodynamic therapy continues to be used for many indications, including actinic keratoses, acne, and photorejuvenation, but other potential uses remain. Perhaps most promising is the technology's role in chemoprevention,...

Digital telepathology results mixed in small study.(Cutaneous Oncology)
December 1, 2008... SAN FRANCISCO -- Remote review of digital immunohistochemistry slides by pathologists seemed to be as accurate as in-person evaluations by light microscopy for diagnosis of dysplastic nevi, but was less successful for diagnosing early malignant...

Delayed response seen with new melanoma drugs.(Cutaneous Oncology)(Clinical report)
December 1, 2008... STOCKHOLM -- Clinical studies of two experimental agents--tremelimumab and ipilimumab--have shown delayed and mixed responses among patients who gained control of refractory melanomas with these therapies. Both agents come from a new class...

Negative melanoma results have some asking, 'What's Next?".(Cutaneous Oncology)(Clinical report)
December 1, 2008... STOCKHOLM -- The failure of the largest randomized phase III trial ever conducted in stage IV melanoma has left investigators around the globe with a question for which they have no easy answer: What next? Temozolomide did not improve upon...

Antibiotic exit strategy can reduce resistance.(Infectious Diseases)
December 1, 2008... SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. -- Tetracyclines may wind up being the safest, cheapest, easiest-to-tolerate nonintravenous drugs available to treat future cases of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and that should be reason enough to...

Rapid test flags Staph. aureus and methicillin susceptibility.(Infectious Diseases)(Clinical report)
December 1, 2008... WASHINGTON -- A single-use bacteriophage amplification test kit was able to both accurately identify Staphylococcus aureus and determine whether it was methicillin sensitive or resistant within 5 hours in a study of clinical bacteremia...

Iclaprim comparable to linezolid for skin infection.(Infectious Diseases)(Clinical report)
December 1, 2008... WASHINGTON -- The novel antibiotic iclaprim appears to be comparable to linezolid in terms of safety and efficacy in the treatment of complicated skin and skin structure infections, based on the results of a study of almost 1,000 patients. ...

Infant prematurity heightens skin infection risk.(Infectious Diseases)
December 1, 2008... SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. -- Enhanced survival of the smallest of premature infants presents special challenges to dermatologists tasked with caring for conditions arising from incomplete development of the skin. Skin is a relatively early...

CU seeks sunscreen probe.(Policy & Practice)
December 1, 2008... Consumers Union has urged the Food and Drug Administration to review sunscreens for safety, saying that tests it conducted found that four of five products contained nanoparticles, despite claims to the contrary by the manufacturers....

Lasers effective for leg hair.(Policy & Practice)
December 1, 2008... A small study has found that both Nd:YAG and alexandrite lasers are effective for long-term removal of leg hair, but that combining the two did not confer additional benefit, just more side effects such as pain and hyperpigmentation. There was...

Elston honored by Dermpaths.(Policy & Practice)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... The American Society of Dermatopathology honored Dr. Dirk M. Elston with its Walter R. Nickel Award for Excellence in Teaching of Dermatopathology at the society's annual meeting in San Francisco. Dr. Elston is director of dermatology at...

Etanercept, infliximab lead injuries.(Policy & Practice)
December 1, 2008... An analysis of adverse drug reactions reported to the FDA in the first quarter of 2008 has found that etanercept and infliximab were among the top 10 drugs accounting for serious injuries. The analysis was conducted by the Institute for Safe...

Practice costs outstrip revenues.(Policy & Practice)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Operating costs rose faster than did revenues in most group practices in 2007, according to the Medical Group Management Association's annual cost survey. From 1997 to 2007, operating costs rose from 58 cents per dollar of revenue to 61 cents....

Poor marks for PQRI.(Policy & Practice)
December 1, 2008... Most of the physicians who participated in Medicare's 2007 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative found the program at least moderately difficult, according to a survey conducted by the American Medical Association. Only 22% of respondents to...

GAO: FDA needed broader pool.(Policy & Practice)(Government Accountability Office )(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... FDA officials might have avoided some conflicts of interest on their scientific advisory committees by expanding recruitment efforts beyond word-of-mouth nominations, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office. The report,...

In eight-nation survey, more U.S. patients call for reform.(Practice Trends)
December 1, 2008... In an eight-nation survey of people with chronic conditions, patients in the Netherlands were most positive about their country's health care system--reporting affordable, accessible care with low rates of errors--while U.S. patients were the...

Build relationships with those who refer to you.(Practice Trends)
December 1, 2008... SAN DIEGO -- Any plan for marketing a medical practice should include a strategy for nurturing relationships with physicians who refer to you, Andrea T. Eliscu, R.N., advised at the annual conference of the Medical Group Management Association....

Tame the backlog--with economics.(Managing Your Dermatology Practice)(Column)
December 1, 2008... My last two columns discussed the complaint patients make most often: waiting too long in the office. However, another prevalent complaint--and one that shows no sign of improving in many areas of the country--is the inability to get an...

Medical spas' benefits come with legal considerations.(Practice Trends)
December 1, 2008... SAN DIEGO -- The demand for medical spa services is holding steady despite the current economic downturn, Michael R. Lowe, P.A., said at the annual conference of the Medical Group Management Association. "I represent about 25 medical spas,...

Many practices are not prepared for disasters.(Practice Trends)
December 1, 2008... SAN DIEGO -- About one-third of medical practices have no emergency medical preparedness plan to deal with disasters such as hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and terrorist attacks, results from a national survey demonstrated. In fact, more...

Riding bonds dermatologist brothers.(The Rest of Your Life)
December 1, 2008... Dr. Chris Frost and Dr. Marc Frost acquired their love for off-road motorcycle riding as youngsters growing up in St. Donatus, Iowa, a small town with rolling hills near Dubuque. Their father was a motor sports enthusiast who thought...

Relief for itching and skin irritation.(Products)
December 1, 2008... NovaMoist moisturizes while alleviating itching and irritation associated with pre-and postmenopausal dry skin, dry elbows, cracked nail beds, cracked and flaking heels, and red blotches. It also might alleviate acute and chronic inflammatory...

Relastin Ultra Emollient.(Products)
December 1, 2008... Relastin Ultra Emollient contains vitamins A and C, which restore the appearance of youthful skin by smoothing wrinkles, brightening the complexion, and encouraging the production of collagen. The other key component is the zinc firming...

Laser handpieces.(Products)
December 1, 2008... Reliant has expanded the product line for its Fraxel repair laser with two new handpieces. The 0.2-mm incisional handpiece is designed for surgical procedures such as laser blepharoplasty and vermilionectomy of the lip, and it can also be used...

Oil for scars and stretch marks.(Products)
December 1, 2008... Bio-Oil diminishes the appearance of scars, stretch marks, and uneven skin tone. It is also useful for managing other skin concerns, including aging skin and dehydrated skin. The product is now available in a larger 4.2-ounce size. The...

Eye renewal patch.(Products)
December 1, 2008... A transdermal delivery system offers two options to improve the appearance of the eye area. The Anti-Aging Power Patch is designed to reduce the appearance of crow's feet, fine lines, and broken capillaries, while the Eye-Light Power Patch is...

Holder for disposable wipes.(Products)
December 1, 2008... The Sani-Bracket 3-in-1 Wall and Mobile Equipment Attachment System holds canisters of Sani-Cloth and Sani-Hands premoistened wipes. The bracket attaches to walls and equipment such as IV poles, wheelchairs, gurneys, and carts. It is easily...

Moisturizing cream.(Products)(Clinical report)
December 1, 2008... Stelatopia Moisturizing Cream helps reduce the irritation from eczema and manage flare-ups in infants and children. The moisturizing cream contains natural ingredients and is paraben-free, color-flee, and fragrance-flee, as well as...

Eczema cream.(Products)
December 1, 2008... Tetrix cream is a prescription product for treating hand eczema and hand dermatitis. The cream features a water-resistant formula that doesn't disappear with gentle handwashing, so it can provide protection for up to 6 hours. The cream's...

Consumer poster on itching.(Products)
December 1, 2008... Ferndale Laboratories offers two new patient education tools: A poster ("Identify the Triggers of Mild to Moderate Itching") that describes some of the conditions and triggers that may cause itching and ways to minimize the problem, and a...

Sonic skin care.(Products)
December 1, 2008... The Clarisonic Skin Care System applies the principles of the sonic toothbrush to skin care. The electric-powered hand-held device features rotating bristles that are designed to help reduce oil, soften dry skin, and improve the appearance of...

Hair loss laser enters trials.(Products)
December 1, 2008... The X5 Hair Laser, a nonprescripton device for men and women, has entered clinical trials to determine its efficacy in stimulating the regrowth of hair in men who are balding. Randomized, placebo-controlled trials of this low-level, laser-light...

Skineez Skincarewear.(Products)
December 1, 2008... Every Skineez Skincarewear garment is pretreated with Skintex technology, whereby fabrics are embedded with ingredients that moisturize and smooth the skin, while helping to reduce the outer appearance of cellulite. This new concept of textiles...

Diagnosis: hypopigmented mycosis fungoides.(Case of the Month)
December 1, 2008... An otherwise healthy 6-year-old boy presented with a 3-year history of scaly, hypopigmented macules and patches on his trunk and limbs. A previous biopsy had concluded that the diagnosis was "spongiotic dermatitis," but no improvement was seen...