Recent outbreaks of mysterious skin lesions on multiple personnel at several military facilities were initially blamed on spiders. Requests were made for pest inspection and control to remedy the situation. Greater scrutiny of the situation led to a hypothesis that instead of spiders, an infectious outbreak of community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) should be in...

In the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, (1994) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.) Washington, DC: author) phobic adults and adolescents are said to "recognize that the phobia is excessive or unreasonable" given the actual danger posed by the feared situation. The present study exa...

McGain, Harrison, and Winkel (2000) report that Australia has a diversity of creatures spewing venom, many of which are capable of inflicting lethal injuries to individuals. European wasps (Vespula germanica), while not gaining as much public attention as snake and spider bites in America, are capable of injecting highly dangerous stings. In reference to the widespread distribution of wasps and...

Brown recluse spider (Loxosceles) bites cause lesions ranging from chronic necrotic ulcers to acute life-threatening sepsis. Based on our experience in treating acute and chronic wounds with negative pressure, we postulated that vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) would be valuable in this application. Chester pigs were procured and injected with purified brown recluse spider venom, 1 µl of venom in ...

Envenomations caused by Loxosceles (brown spider) have been reported throughout the world. Clinical signs associated to bites of these spiders involve dermonecrotic lesions and intense local inflammatory response, besides systemic manifestations such as intravascular hemolysis, thrombocytopenia, disseminated intravascular coagulation and acute renal failure. The present study aimed to report an...

Loxosceles rufescens, commonly known as the Mediterranean Recluse or Mediterranean Fiddle-Back Spider is recorded from Iran for the first time. The genus Loxosceles contains 103 accepted species, two of them (including L. rufescens) are cosmopolitan. All Loxosceles species tested so far possess necrotic venoms, which is a unique characteristic among the Order Araneae. Considering this character...

Sphingomyelinases D (SMases D) or dermonecrotic toxins are well characterized in Loxosceles spider venoms and have been described in some strains of pathogenic microorganisms, such as Corynebacterium sp. After spider bites, the SMase D molecules cause skin necrosis and occasional severe systemic manifestations, such as acute renal failure. In this paper, we identified new SMase D amino acid seq...

CD30-positive cells characterize lymphomatoid papulosis and anaplastic large cell lymphoma but can also be found in nonneoplastic skin disorders. Purportedly, CD30 is useful in the differential diagnosis between insect bites and lymphomatoid papulosis. Recently, a subtype of neutrophil-rich CD30-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma has been described, which may enter the differential diagnos...