Comparison of cheek and forehead regions by bioengineering methods in women with different self-reported cosmetic skin types

Background/aims: Understanding structural and functional differences between facial areas is necessary for the formulation of cosmetics and dermatological preparations well tailored to the skin's biophysical characteristics. The objective of the present study was to compare biophysical parameters on malar and frontal facial areas of healthy women classified according to self-reported cosmetic skin types.
Methods: The study population comprised 253 women aged from 20 to 50 years who did not display any signs of dermatological disease. Women declared spontaneously their cosmetic skin type. Skin capacitance, sebum casual level, skin temperature, transepidermal water loss (TEWL), skin colour and relief were assessed on cheeks and forehead in a controlled environment.
Results: All biophysical parameters showed statistically significant differences between the two zones. Mean a* chromametric values and TEWL values were significantly higher on cheeks. In contrast, mean b * chromametric values and sebum casual levels showed the highest values on the forehead. Moreover, skin capacitance, temperature, roughness and L .* chromametric value showed minor, while statistically significant, differences between the two zones. With marginal exceptions, the differences between the facial zones for each biophysical parameter remained statistically significant, irrespective of self-reported skin type.
Conclusion: Biophysical parameter mean values differ between frontal and malar zones regardless of self-reported skin type. Except for the elevated sebum casual levels in greasy and combined skin, no single or combined biophysical characteristics could be linked to any of the self-reported skin types. Furthermore our data confirm that in contrast to the common belief that dry skin is associated with reduced sebum production, sebum levels in women declaring to have dry skin and those declaring to have normal skin were not found to be different.     

Phagocytosis and production of reactive oxygen species by peripheral blood phagocytes in patients with different stages of alcohol-induced liver disease: effect of acute exposure to low ethanol concentrations

BACKGROUND: In rodents, the development of alcoholic liver disease (ALD) after chronic alcohol feeding was shown to depend on the activity of enzymes that are necessary for production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in phagocytes. The aim of this study was to determine the formation of ROS by resting and challenged phagocytes of patients with different stages of ALD in the presence of ethanol concentrations commonly found in the blood of alcohol abusers. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The release of ROS and the phagocytosis of bacteria by neutrophils and monocytes obtained from 60 patients, who were categorized in three groups due to the severity of ALD, were compared to that of 28 healthy controls. ROS release by these phagocytes was measured after challenging with endotoxin and the addition of ethanol (22 and 44 mM). RESULTS: Resting neutrophils but not monocytes from patients with severe stages of ALD produced significantly more ROS than those of healthy controls. Basal values of ROS production from neutrophils correlated closely to markers of the severity of ALD. ROS formation was depressed dose-dependently by ethanol in the healthy controls but not in alcohol abusers. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in the ROS metabolism of phagocytes found in this study might contribute to both the development of ALD and the impaired immune response occurring in patients with severe ALD.     

Randomized reliability study evaluating constant-load and graded-exercise treadmill test for intermittent claudication

The aim of this randomized study was to compare the reliability of the treadmill test at constant-load (C-test, 3 km/hr; fixed grade of 12%) recommended in Germany with that of the graded-exercise test (G-test, 3 km/hr; increase in grade of 3.5% every 3 minutes) propagated in the United States. In 50 patients with an absolute claudication distance (ACD) in the C-test of between 50 and 400 m, the two treadmill tests were carried out in randomized order on one and the same day, and repeated on 3 days within 1 week. For the initial claudication distance (ICD), the intraclass correlation was 0.88 in the C-test and 0.87 in the G-test. For the ACD the coefficients were identical at 0.91. The within-subject variation (CVwithin) in the C-test and G-test was 25% and 27% for the ICD and for the ACD 24% and 21%, respectively. The between-subject variation was very similar with 72% and 73% (ICD) and with 78% and 68% (ACD). However, in ACDs below 100 m and between 100 to 150 m, the C-test showed significantly smaller coefficients of variation than the G-test: 13% vs 81% and 14% vs 50%, respectively. In conclusion, the results showed that both C-test and G-test are equally well reproducible.