Journal of

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Background and Aim: There are some reports regading the anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effect of honey and Nigella sativa and their therapeutic effects in improvement of wound healing. This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of adding honey and Nigella sativa extract compared to honey alone in patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis receiving intralesional Glucantime.
Methods: In this clinical trial, 150 patients with confirmed cutaneous leishmaniasis were randomly allocated into two groups. One group was treated with topical honey twice daily along with weekly intralesional injection of Glucantime. In the second group, patients were treated with topical honey and 60 % hydroalchoholic Nigella sativa extract instead of honey alone. The patients were treated until complete healing of the ulcer or for maximum of 12 weeks.
Results: At 12 weeks, complete cure was achieved in 61 (81.3%) of patients treated with topical honey and 60 % hydroalchoholic Nigella sativa extract versus 48 (64%) in the second group (P=0.002).
Conclusion: The efficacy of adjunct honey and Nigella sativa extract along with intralesional Glucantime is more than honey alone in increasing complete cure rate and decreasing the residual scar size and the required dose of Glucantime.

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Background and Aim: Androgenetic alopecia is an extremely common disorder affecting both men and women. The incidence is generally considered to be greater in males than females, although some evidence suggests that the apparent differences in incidence may be a reflection of different expression in males and females. This genetically determined disorder is progressive through the gradual conversion of terminal hairs into indeterminate hairs and finally to vellus hairs. Patients have a reduction in the terminal-to-vellus hair ratio, normally at least 2:1. Following miniaturization of the follicles, fibrous tracts remain. Patients with this disorder usually have a typical distribution of hair loss.
Methods: This is a cross sectional study that conducted in Isfahan health center in 2007-2008 .Using simple random sampling, we selected 1800 women in urban health center areas for hair loss. We evaluated the type of hair loss by Ludwig classification. The data was collected through administration of a specifically designed questionnaire and was analyzed using SPSS software. The chi-square and student tests were used for data analysis.

Results: According to results of this study the of 1800 women, 712 (39.6%) had hair loss. Mean age of females who had hair loss was 50.4±13 years.
Conclusion: Thyroid disorders, ferritin serum level and androgenic hormones may play role in hair loss and their existance should be assessed.

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Background and Aim: Malassezia is a lipophilic and dimorphic fungus which has different species. Some of them can be found as natural flora on skin and in some conditions may cause pityriasis versicolor. The aim of this study was to identify Malassezia species associated with pityriasis versicolor in Iranian patients, using PCR-RFLP.
Methods: In this study out of 65 patients with pityriasis versicolor to have pityriasis versicolor,isolates of 60 patients were positive. Malassezia species. using by PCR-RFLP. The Internal Transcribed Spacer 2 (ITS2) region was amplified by PCR employing the ITS3 and ITS4 primers and The restriction endonucleases AluI, BanI and MspAI were selected for producing distinct RFLP patterns.
Results: M. furfur (36.7%), M. globosa (30.0%), M. sympodialis (20.0%), M. slooffiae (8.3%), M. restricta (3.3%) and M. obtusa (1.7%) were the microorganisms responsible for the infection among participants. The M. sympodialis infection was strongly correlated with the female gender (P=0.02).
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that, the most common Malassezia species associated with pityriasis versicolor was M. furfur, followed by M. globosa.

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Hair loss can be viewed a problem from different perspectives: as a disease, a disorder which affects appearance of an individual, and its psychological effects. Therefore, it is crucial to determine the causes and types of hair loss. This review summarized hair loss evaluation methods with significant emphasis on their clinical aspects. According to relevant literature reviews, the major approaches to hair loss are taking medical history, primary investigations and detailed hair examination. Although several invasive and non-invasive, clinical and paraclinical examinations can be used for hair loss assessment, it is generally accepted that using clinical evaluation methods and physical examinations are more efficient. In conclusion, diagnosing hair loss is complex and sometimes time-consuming process. However, precise hair examination may lead to the suspicion of an endocrine disorder.

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Background an Aim: parapsoriasis is a rare chronic idiopathic dermatosis which commonly manifests with round or oval scaling and itching erythematosus plaques on trunk and extremities. Considering the size of the lesions, parapsoriasis is divided into two groups: small plaque and large plaque. Study of demographic characteristics of this disease may help to identify the high risk groups who are more susceptible to cutaneous lymphoma with high mortality as well as proper allocation of health service resources.
Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, affected parapsoriasis patients whom were referred to Razi Hospital in Tehran between April 2003 to March 2009 were studied. Three hundred and twenty patients were investigated for variables: age, sex, place of residence, location of the lesions and clinical subgroups according to the histopathology reports.
Results: 53.4% of patients were female. The disease was most commonly observed in age group of 20 to 50 years and the mean age of the patients was 43.3 years. Eighty-five percent of the patients were inhabitant of Tehran province. 88.1% of patients had large plaque lesions and 11.9% had small plaque lesions. The most common sites of lesions were on the trunk (53.4%) followed by the extremities (38.7%).
Conclusion: Based on these findings, it was determined that parapsoriasis most commonly affects middle-aged women. Involvement of trunks and extremities were most commonly observed. Large plaque type was the most common type. 

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Background and Aim: Wart is one of the most common viral diseases of skin caused by human papilloma virus (HPV) and results in high costs for therapeutic, cosmetic and hygienic interventions. Euphorbia is an annual plant belonging to Euphorbiaceae family that has seventy species. All of them have latexes with high medicinal values. These plants have anti-viral and anti-tumor substances and 10 species of them are used in traditional medicine for treatment of ulcers, tumors, warts, and other diseases. In this study, the therapeutic effect of Euphorbia macrolada latex on common warts is compared with the standard keratolytic treatment. Methods: The latex of E. macrolada was prepared from Dehgolan region in Kurdistan Province and used directly. The standard keratolytic solution, which contained 16.7 g salicylic acid, 16.7 g lactic acid and up to 100 g collodion was prepared and delivered by the Hamedan Behzisti Pharmacy. A double-blind trial was conducted in Farshchian Hospital, Hamedan, Iran on 88 patients (44 in each group). They were instructed to apply the solutions on their warts twice daily for maximum of 8 weeks. Results: All lesions in both groups were cured after 8 weeks. The meanstandard deviation (SD) of time to cure was 4.51.4 weeks in E. macrolada group and 5.11.6 weeks in the control group. None of these differences were statistically significant (P>0.05). No adverse effects was observed in any of patients. Conclusion: The findings indicated that E. macrolada had a therapeutic effect on common warts. Based on the results of this study, latex of this plant can be used as a complementary or alternative medicine in the treatment of patients with common warts.

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Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is a solution derived from whole blood that is enriched in the platelet fraction. Platelets serve as a reservoir of growth factors and cytokines. When platelets are activated in vivo, signaling molecules are released into the immediate microenvironment and activate receptors for various pathways. PRP has been applied to bedsores to promote healing. Over the last decade, it has been used as a valuable therapeutic method in various specialties such as maxillofacial surgery, plastic surgery, orthopedics and sports medicine. Only recently has PRP been utilized for dermatologic purposes, psrticularly, for the treatment of male and female pattern hair loss.

In this review, we discuss molecular and cellular pathways up-regulated by PRP important in hair folliculogenesis, and examine clinical evidence from all previously published studies involving the use of PRP for pattern hair loss.

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Background and Aim: The present world is a world of short-sectional relationships, most people identify themselves by acknowledging their appearance instead of considering their inherited or acquired different characteristics. In this study, we decided to compare the body image between patients with skin diseases and healthy participants.

Methods: In this case-control study, 300 (150 cases and 150 controls) individuals aged from 18 to 64 years were selected in the Isfahan city. Satisfaction with body image and feelings of respondents regarding their apparent looks in different situations and different conditions were investigated using an a researcher-constructed questionnaire. To analyze the collected data, we used the analysis of covariance and compared the means.

Results: Single, younger, and less educated women had body image scores higher and more positive look to their bodies. Healthy people had higher score of body image than the patients with skin diseases. There was no significant relationship between gender and body image scores.

Conclusion: Skin diseases had an important role in body image. So we suggest that the effect of other diseases, that somehow affect the appearance of people on body image, be examined deeply for each disease.

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Background and Aim: Vitiligo is a prevalent depigmentaling skin disorder, which has a great impact on the quality of life of patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of quality of life of these patients with self-compassion and experiential avoidance.

Methods: In this analytical cross-sectional study, Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), Second Edition of Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ-II), and Vitiligo Quality of Life Index (VitiQoL) were completed by 105 patients with vitiligo (49.5% male) who were selected through available sampling method. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, t-test, ANOVA and covariance analysis.


Results: The average of quality of life score of the participants in the study was 32.14. There was a significant relationship (P<0.01) of the quality of life scores with the scores of experiential avoidance (R=0.28), self-judgment (R=0.36), isolation (R=0.52) and extreme identification (R=0.42). After removing the confounding effect of the variables on each other, the relationship of quality of life score with the location of the lesion (P=0.04) and isolation score (P=0.001) was significant.


Conclusion: Self-compassion and experiential avoidance play an important role in the quality of life of patients with vitiligo, and targeting these two components through psychological treatments can be effective in improving the quality of life of these patients.

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Urticaria is a relatively common skin disease characterized by red or white itchy and transient swellings. In more severe cases, it can reduce level of consciousness and be life-threatening due to swelling of tongue or throat and airway obstruction
In conventional medicine, this disease is treated symptomatic and mainly by antihistamines. Studies have indicated that urticaria is similar to "shara" (a type of skin disease mentioned in Persian medicine) in terms of etiology, description, clinical symptoms and diagnosis. In Persian medicine (Iranian traditional medicine) litrature, efficacy of several medicinal plants for the treatment of "shara" has been explaind.

This study is a review on the effective herbal remedies in the treatment of urticaria based on search in Iranian medicine resources, and conventional medicine litrature. Data were extracted from Iranian medicine textbooks and scientific databases including Google scholar, Pub Med, Web of Science and Scopus. It was found that Iranian medicine scholars have used 48 different medicinal plants to treat and reduce the complications of urticaria and the recent scientific studies have proven antiinflammatory, antioxidant and immune-regulating properties in 45 of these plants.

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Background and Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the causes of doing cosmetic surgeries in married women.

Methods: The research design was descriptive. The statistical population of the study consisted of married women who had performed cosmetic surgery. An in-depth, unstructured interview was conducted to collect information from 21 married women who were undergoing a cosmetic surgery. The data were analyzed using the foundation data (coding) method.

Results: In the present study, participants' interview analysis led to the identification of 416 primary codes, 21 subcategories, and three main categories, including individual, marital-family, and sociocultural contexts.

Conclusion: The desire for cosmetic surgery, on the one hand, has been influenced by individual factors, such as mischief, the negative image of the individual towards herself and et al. On the other hand, it has been influenced by family-marital factors such as the perception of repetition for the spouse, humiliation by the spouse and family and, also, influenced by socio-cultural factors such as the role of peers and friends and the role of media models.

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Background and Aim: In order to overcome the local side effects of the conventional treatments for atopic dermatitis, a new attitude regarding alternative treatments would be needed, which herbal medicines are promising approachs in this case.
 

Methods: It was a 4-week, before-after clinical study, conducted on 20 participants (16 women and 4 men) aged 39.95±11.04 years. The severity scoring of atopic dermatitis was determined based on total & local SCORAD. skin biophisical parameters including TEWL ,skin hydration, pH, temperature, sebum and skin erythema were also measured after 2 and 4 weeks application of the study product. Participants’ satisfaction as well as tolerability of the product were assessed by monitoring the adverse effects.
 

Results: A significant improvement was detected in LOCAL and TOTAL SCORAD at weeks 2 and 4 (P<0.01). The intensity of burning and pruritus also showed a significant decrease at weeks 2 and 4 (P<0.01). A significant increase in the skin hydration was shown at weeks 2 and 4 after treatment (P<0.01). 84.1% and 78.9% of participants described their skin lesions as "improved" or "much improved", 2 and 4 weeks after treatment respectively.
 

Conclusion: The test cream containing oats and chamomile extract is considered a safe and effective product for improving mild to moderate lesions of atopic dermatitis.

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Background and Aim: Spiders are one of the largest orders of arachnids, found worldwide on all continents except Antarctica. Many species of spiders live in close proximity to humans and generally inject poison into other animals, including humans, to protect themselves or to hunt.
Case Report: In this paper, a seven-year-old boy is presented who came to the hospital complaining of skin reactions in the eye, knee, and lower leg area. Skin lesions appeared on the boy's body after a few hours. After 24 hours, the skin lesions intensified, and inflammation and redness along with itching occurred on the boy's body. Finally, after 5 days, the skin lesions disappeared completely by washing with soap and water along with the use of Calamine lotion and the bite site improved.
Conclusion: Increasing awareness among physicians, about the symptoms of this nuisance insects can help to accelerate treatment process.

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Background: Scorpions are known as one of the oldest venomous animals on the planet. Scorpion bites are an important public health problem in many parts of the world, including Iran.
Case Report: In this paper, a 49-year-old woman is presented who came to the hospital with a complaining of skin reactions in the thigh area. The clinical findings in this study showed that the scorpion bite site had inflammatory reactions and redness after 24 hours. The patient was treated with Pentavalent anti-scorpion serum by intravenous injection. Approximately one week after the scorpion bite, the local and systemic symptoms disappeared with the use of anti-inflammatory ointments. Immediately after the scorpion bite, the patient's resting place was checked by the companions, and a specimen of the Hottentotta jayakari scorpion species was identified.
Conclusion: Considering that there are scorpion bite in Iran, in order to prevent and control them, it is necessary to increase the general awareness and knowledge of people at risk in society in order to reduce possible risks. In addition to these, increasing the awareness among doctors, especially dermatologists, of the skin symptoms of this dangerous animal, as therapists, can help speed up the treatment process.

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Melasma is one of the most common disorders It is an acquired skin pigmentation that occurs especially in sun-exposed areas, mainly on the face. The chronic, recurrent nature and multifactorial pathophysiology of this disease make its treatment associated with significant challenges. In recent years, lasers have been considered as new and complementary methods in the treatment of melasma, but the results reported in different studies have been variable.
The aim of this study is to review the studies conducted on the role of various lasers in the treatment of melasma and compare their effectiveness, safety and limitations. This study was conducted as a review and published articles on the use of various lasers including Nd: YAG, fractional lasers, picosecond lasers, pulsed-dye lasers (PDL) and intense pulsed light sources (IPL) were examined. The findings of the studies were analyzed and compared descriptively.
The results of the review of studies showed that lasers can reduce the severity of melasma and improve the appearance of skin lesions, but the degree of effectiveness and durability of results depends on the type of laser, treatment parameters, patient skin type and compliance with post-treatment care. Among the various methods, the low-fluence Nd: YAG laser has shown the most scientific evidence in terms of the balance between effectiveness and safety. However, the risk of recurrence and complications such as post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation remain important challenges for laser treatment of melasma.
Overall, the available evidence suggests that lasers have an effective role in the management of melasma, but the best results are achieved when these methods are used as part of a comprehensive and combined treatment approach, along with topical treatments and appropriate sun protection.