Two hundred and seventeen histopathologically proved cases of mycetoma collected from the records of the pathology Department over a period I of 13 W years (from. January 1971 to May 1984) were studied using haematoxylin and eosin stained paraffin sections, and wherever necessary Gomori's silver methanamine technique, PAS stain, Gram's stain and Zeihl Neelson's stain to outline the morphological characteristics of the causative agents in the tissue and the surrounding tissue reaction.

Three Indian sibs with epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV), born of consanguineous marriage, are _described. The lesions were hypopigmented, erythematous, flat papules present over the face, neck, trunk and upper extremities. Multiple Bowen's keratosis over the face in case 1 and 2, and squamous cell carcinomas over the forehead in case 1 and the scalp in case 2 were also present at the time of presentation. Cell-mediated immunity was depressed in all the three case. Viral particles were demonstrated in the nucleus by electronmicroscopy in the lesion of EV. No direct association with any HLA type could be established.

Palmar der matoglyphics were studied in two typical cases of Marfan's syndrome by ,using the standard ink and roller method. Simian crease, extra-digital transverse crease, 'increased atd angle, high position of the axial triradus and white lines were recorded.

Graded concentration of compound dithranol ointment were, tried' in 107 patients with plaque psoriais. The lowest concentration used was 0.05% which was gradully'mcreased, irrespective of the response. to the . um tolerable concentration. The ointment was applied over the patches in the evening and the lesions were exposed to the sun the next day. This was followed by a soap water bath. The process was repeated tiD 16 weeks or the disappearance of lesions whichever was earlier. A majority of the patients required a concentration of 0.25% for clearing and a few required 0.5% concentration. In 54 patients, there was complete clearing of the lesions and another 22% showed 75% clearance. Only 2% cases, there was no appreciable change in the skin lesions. Resistant sites were legs, elbows, lower back etc. Mild local side effm such as folliculitis, irritation of the surrounding normal skin and local pruritus occurred in some patients. In seven patients, c irritation required discontinuation of the therapy. Temporary staining of the fingertips and hair occurred as also staining of the No systemic side effects were observed.

PUVA was used on thirty five psoriatic patients. Early and complete clearance 'of lesions was seen in all but two patients, between 5 to 35 days of treatment. There were no serious side effects.

One hundred and six cases comprising different of warts were included the study. The types of treatment tried were topical systemic and physical. Podophylin 25% in tincture benzoin co was very effective for genital warts, while electrocautery was successful in 87% cases of common warts. Systemic medication such as levamisole and thuja-200 did not give satisfactory results.

A survey of 995 cases of leprosy revealed the prevalence of ocular involvement to be 275.4 per thousand. Lepromatous leprosy showed the highest prevalence. Majority of the cases were males, but prevalence of ocular involvement was higher in females. The 40-50 year age group showed the maximum prevalence. The time interval between the onset of skin lesions and the eye lesions, in majority of the cases was 5-10.

One hundred and eighteen cases of leprosy with ocular involvement were found to have corneal involvement out of a total 274 cases of ocular in volvement in leprosy. The common eye lesions observed were chronic conjunctivitis (54.01%), keratitis (47.07%), iritis (31.75%) and lagophthalmos (27.76%). In 38.98% of the cases, the time lag between the onset of skin lesions and corneal lesions was 5 to 15 years. The major causes, which lead to involvement of cornea, were corneal anaesthesia (116), lagophthalmos (76), ectropion (21), entropion (11) and trichiasis (4). Corneal blindness constituted 55.6% of total blindness in leprosy with ocular involvement.

A case of Fabry' disease (angiokeratoma corporis diffusum universale) is reported. Presence of uncommon physical thick lips, large ears and proportion are high - lighted.

This report describes 2 females patients having contact dermatitis due to mustard khal the residue of,mustard seeds after the oil hasbeen extracted out. The dermatitis was caused by mbdng mustard khal with the cattle feed and was occurring on the hands and forearms, though the face, ear lobules and neck were also mvolved because of the practice of applying mustard oil on the hair. Patch tests were positive with the mustard khal and its fractionation products in both the patients and with mustard oil in one patient.

A 27-year-old male having scleromyxoedema is reported. The lesions were moderately pruritic, 2 to 3 mm papules situated over sheets of thickened, waxy skin on the face, neck trunk and extremities. Paraproteinemia was absent, though the bone marrow showed a mild plasma cell hyperplasia.

Out of 67 patients with classical lichen striatus, consisting of discrete linchenoid paules or plaques in a linear fashion, occurring mostly on the extremities and followed up for over 3,1/2 years, the. skin lesions on 49 subjects were biopsied and studied. The different histopathologic changes could be classified into 3 groups. Perivascular dermatitis (51%) was the commonest pattern, followed by perivascular and periappendageal dermatitis (26.5%) and lichenoid dermatitis (22.5%). Three specimens showed m addition, islands of epithelioids cells.

An attempt was made to study the distinguishing clinical features, histopathological findings especially the elastic tissue stain and examination of the plucked hairs in 30 cases of cicatrical alopecia. Clinically, pseudopelade had irregular areas of atrophy with tufts of normal hairs arising from the bald scarred areas. Folliculitis decalvans had a history or presence of inflammatory papules and pustules with atrophy extending to the temporal areas. DLE showed features of cutaneous DLE at least in some places. A smooth, slightly violaceous atrophic patch with spinous lesions in other areas suggested lichen planopilaris. Morphoea presented with a sclerosed plaque which was linear in some cases. Most of the plucked hairs in cicatrising alopecias showed anagen hairs which were easily plucked, in contrast to the telogen hairs of alopecia areata. Histopathologically accumulation of elastic fibres around the vertical fibrous column and loss of elastic tissue in the papillary dermis were diaagnostic of pseudopelade. In folliculitis decalvans, fibrosis was irregular with many dilated blood vessels even in the late state of the disease. Appearances suggestive of solar elastosis were characteristic of advanced lesions of DLE. Irregular atrophy with scanty fragmented elastic fibres were found in the scarring stage of lichen planopilaris. Morphoea showed thickened and closely packed collagen bundles and fragmented elastic fibres. On the basis of its characteristic clinical and histopathological features, not found even in the late stages of other scarring alopecias, it is suggested that pseudopelade is an autonomous disease.

Efficacy of two corticosteroid Preparations (Halcinonide (0.1%) and fluocinglone acetonide (0.0125%) in two different bases (ointment and creams) was evaluated on ten healthy volunteers using the wheal suppression technique in a double blind manner. The ointment preparations were more potent than the cream preparations of the same corticosteroid, in the same concentration These differences were highly significant.

Renal involvement in 20 lepromatous leprosy (LL) and 5 non- lepromatous patients was assessed by (a) biochemical analysis of blood and urine, (b) renal functional tests, and (c) histopathological examination of renal biopsies. Ten age-matched healthy normals formed the control group. LL patients had a varying degree of renal involvement as indicated by the presence of pus cells, granular, hyaline and red cell casts, reversal of albumin/globulin ratio and lowered creatinine clearance rates. Renal biopsies showed significant histopathological lesions in 50% of lepromatous as compared to 20% of the non-lepromatous patients. The pathological changes were predominantly of chronic glomerulonephritis followed by chronic pyelonephritis and interstitial nephritis. Surprisingly none of the patients studied showed granulomas, acid-fast bacilli or amyloid in the kidney.

Metal dermatitis accounted for 13% of the total contact dermatitis cases and about 0.17% of the total outpatient attendance. Nickel was the commonest sensitizer (34.90%). Cobalt, copper, aluminum and iron sensitivity was seen in 13.6%, 6.8%, 2.3% and 4.5% cases respectively. There was a complete absence of chromate sensitivity.