This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (8)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Agostino Persi; Alfredo Rebora, MD
Biol D; Department of Dermatology University of Genoa Genoa, Italy

Arch Dermatol. 1985;121(3):307-308.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

In the July issue, the hypothesis of Drs Kürkçüolu and Atakan¹ that metronidazole's effects on rosacea may be due to the agent's antiparasitic activity against the mite Demodex folliculorum is an interesting one.

While studying the survival of D folliculorum in solutions of metronidazole, we found that the mites can survive even in concentrations of as much as 1 mg/mL.² Such levels are unlikely to occur in the skin, in view of the fact that after oral administration of 500 mg of metronidazole, the blood level reaches 15 µg/mL.³ It is to be noted, however, that metronidazole is degraded into at least five metabolites with potential biologic activity,⁴ among which the major urinary product, the 2-hydroxymethyl derivative, is approximately one third to ten times more active as an antibacterial agent than is metronidazole.⁵

It may be that one or more of these . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?