Abby vanVoorhees “Not if, but rather what to screen for psoriasis patients on immunosuppressive therapies.”
1. Using a case-based approach, learn how to pick the best systemic psoriasis therapy for a particular patient.
2. Gain insights into the appropriate laboratory studies and evaluations for psoriasis patients on systemic therapies.
Joel Gelfand “Cardiovascular risk in psoriasis: Implications for your clinical practice.”
1. Similar to diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, moderate to severe psoriasis increases the risk for cardiovascular events.
2. Methotrexate and TNF inhibitors may decrease the risk of cardiovascular events in individuals with moderate to severe psoriasis.
3. Rigorous trials are underway to determine if systemic or ultraviolet light treatment of psoriasis will improve key biomarkers of cardiovascular risk.
Herb Allen “Frontiers in Dermatology”
1. Staphylococci that make biofilms that occlude sweat ducts cause eczema.
2. Streptococci cause psoriasis.
3. Treponemes cause Alzheimer’s disease.
James Treat “Whats new in pediatric dermatology”
1. Early emollient use may prevent atopic dermatitis in children at risk.
2. Tonsillectomy may significantly decrease the burden of psoriasis in patients with recurrent Streptococcal infections.
Victoria Werth “Cutaneous lupus erythematosus: New developments in pathogenesis and treatment.”
1. Dermatologists serve an essential role treating the approximately 50% of lupus erythematosus patients with cutaneous disease alone.
2. Genetic and environmental factors contribute to the pathophysiology of cutaneous lupus through activation of Toll receptors and inflammatory cytokines.
3. Cutaneous lupus erythematosus significantly impacts quality of life.
Aimee Payne “Whats new in pemphigus therapy”
1. Ongoing clinical trials suggest that FDA-approved therapies for pemphigus may be on the horizon.
2. Learn about the safety and efficacy of rituximab induced B-cell depletion to treat pemphigus.
3. Anti-cd20 and anti-BAFF agents may provide novel therapeutic approaches for pemphigus.
Joslyn Kirby “How to read a paper: Common sense and statistics”
1. Personal experience is powerful, but not generalizable.
2. For any given article ask this question: if the results are true, should I change my practice?
3. Critically read tables and figures to uncover the hidden meaning.
Warren Heyman “HHV6 and 7: Pathogenic in DRESS syndrome?”
1. DRESS/ DISH may be a life threatening reaction potentially associated with HHV6 and HHV7.
2. Severe cases of DRESS/ DISH with documented HHV6 reactivation may benefit from adjuvant Ganciclovir.
3. Most patients with DRESS/ DISH will respond to administration of systemic corticosteroids.
Gil Yosipovitch “Clinical cases of chronic itch and their management”
1. Peripheral and central nerve sensitization is a common phenomena in the majority of chronic itch patients.
2. Drugs that target nerve sensitization include anti-epileptics, gabapentin and pregabalin, and anti-depressants, such as mirtazapine.
3. Kappa opioids such as Butrophenol are effective treatment for severe intractable chronic itch.
4. Topical compounded drugs that target ion channels in skin nerves have anti pruritic effect.
Adam Rubin “Nail unit biopsy techniques for optimal evaluation of inflammatory disorders.”
1. A nail unit biopsy will have the highest yield when taken from the anatomic area that is the origin of a clinical sign.
2. The lateral longitudinal biopsy is a preferred technique for difficult to diagnose inflammatory disorders, as multiple anatomic areas of the nail unit are examined in a single specimen.
3. Inking a nail unit biopsy specimen and use of a nail map will help the dermatopahtology lab orient it and will ultimately provide the best histopathologic interpretation.
4. Partial nail avulsions are preferred over complete nail avulsions when taking biopsies for nail inflammatory processes in order to minimize potential complications.
Rosalie Elenitsas “Dermatopathology update”
1. Re-excision of dysplastic nevi with positive pathology margins: Most can be followed clinically, but there are exceptions to the rule.
2. Erythrodermic drug reaction or Sezary syndrome: The pathologist cannot always make the correct diagnosis.
3. Atypical Spitz tumors in children tend to have a favorable prognosis, even in the presence of a positive sentinel lymph node biopsy.
Jason Lee “Dermatoscopy: When is it useful and when is it not”
1. The biggest utility of dermatoscopy is in the triaging step, that is, the first step in the two step process.
2. In the general dermatology practice, dermatoscopy is particularly useful in diagnosing non-melanocytic lesions.
3. Dermatoscopy can decrease the number of benign biopsies for every biopsy detecting melanoma.
Christina Chung “When to transplant a patient with a history of skin cancer”
1. Squamous cell carcinoma is the most common cutaneous malignancy in solid organ transplant recipients.
2. Squamous cell carcinomas in this population are more aggressive and are associated with significantly higher rates of metastases and lower overall survival.
3. In efforts to prevent the futile expenditure of scarce donor organs, pre-transplant wait periods for patients with a history of high-risk squamous cell carcinoma have been proposed.
George Cotsarellis “New understanding of androgenetic alopecia”
1. Hair follicle stem cells are intact in balding scalp.
2. PGD2 is elevated in balding v. nonbalding scalp.
3. PGD2 inhibits hair growth in explanted human hair follicles and inhibition is blocked by PGD2 receptor antagonists.
Tara Gangadhar “Advances in systemic therapy for melanoma”
1. Several new and effective therapies for advanced melanoma have recently become available.
2. Assessing efficacy and toxicity from melanoma immunotherapies requires new approaches different from those seen with traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy.
Michael Ming “Looking beyond thickness in melanoma management”
1. Several factors not included in AJCC staging of melanoma convey important prognostic information.
Emily Chu “Genetic testing for melanoma: An update”
1. Germline genetic testing is used to assess susceptibility to melanoma.
2. Somatic mutation profiling of melanoma tissue is used to predict response to treatment.
3. Somatic gene expressing profiling tests have been developed, with the intention of aiding diagnosis of melanocytic lesions and assessing prognosis of melanoma patients.
Christopher Miller “Practical issues in the management of melanoma”
1. Some categories of primary melanomas present unique challenges for diagnosis, treatment, and reconstruction.
2. Complete pathologic assessment of the tumor and excision margins prior to reconstruction improves staging and management.
3. Combining serial vertical frozen sections of the primary tumor with Mohs surgery aided by MART-1 frozen sections optimizes goals for diagnosis, treatment, and reconstruction of challenging melanomas.
Alain Rook “Activation of innate immunity to treat CTCL”
1. Activation of innate immunity with Toll-like receptor agonists can be highly beneficial for treatment of CTCL.
2. Resiquimod gel used topically produced high clinical response rates as well as systemic immune activation among treated early stage CTCL patients.
3. Topical resiquimod gel can completely eliminate minimal residual disease from treated skin lesions.
Anthony V. Benedetto “A 3-D approach to facial rejuvenation”
1. Aging of the face is a complex, 3-dimensional process.
2. The are static changes that involve volume loss, skin atrophy, and reduced elasticity.
3. There are dynamic changes that involve the hyperkinetic interaction of facial mimetic muscles at rest and during active facial expression and non-verbal communication.
4. Both of these types of changes require a global, 3-dimensional approach using fillers and neurotoxins to rejuvenate a person’s face.
