The successful treatment of prurigo pigmentosa with macrolide antibiotics.
Recent studies have demonstrated that macrolide antibiotics have anti-inflammatory as well as antibacterial effects. Therefore, macrolide antibiotics have been successfully used to treat patients with various inflammatory diseases. We evaluated the effect of macrolide antibiotics in 4 patients with prurigo pigmentosa who were treated with either 400 mg of clarithromycin or 300 mg of roxythromycin daily. Eruption and pruritus disappeared within a week in all the patients while those symptoms were unresponsive to other drugs. Although the mechanism of this effect remains unclear in patients with prurigo pigmentosa, macrolide antibiotics can be considered as an alternative treatment for prurigo pigmentosa.
Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Japan. yazawa-DER@h.u-tokyo.ac.jp
N
N
Yazawa
H
H
Ihn
K
K
Yamane
T
T
Etoh
K
K
Tamaki
D000328:Adult; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017291:Clarithromycin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010859:Pigmentation Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D011536:Prurigo / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D015575:Roxithromycin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012867:Skin / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D015575:Roxithromycin; D017291:Clarithromycin