Vitiligo is a chronic skin disease resulting in destruction of melanocytes and loss of pigmentation. Little is known about epidemiology and comorbidity in Germany. This retrospective cohort analysis used nationwide statutory health insurance data (2016 to 2020). Disease rates were calculated using varying case definitions. Comorbidity was assessed against 3 control groups: persons without vitiligo, with atopic dermatitis, and with psoriasis (1:3 propensity score matching). In 2020, 4,631 persons were diagnosed with vitiligo in DAK-Gesundheit (DAK-G, mean age 56.93 years, ~148,437) and 5,820 persons in the German Analysis Database for Evaluation and Health Services Research (~144,855). Prevalence ranged from 0.12% (confidence interval [CI] 0.12-0.12) to 0.20% (CI 0.19-0.20), and incidence from 0.04% (CI 0.03-0.04) to 0.06% (CI 0.06-0.06). Rates increased with age. Women (mean age 58.60 years) were more frequently affected. Vitiligo was associated with alopecia areata (relative risk 7.14, CI 4.63-11.00) and systemic sclerosis (relative risk 3.20, CI 1.58-6.47). Several mental illnesses (depression: relative risk = 1.23, CI 1.15-1.32, anxiety: relative risk = 1.32, CI 1.19-1.47), were linked to skin diseases like vitiligo, atopic dermatitis, or psoriasis. Vitiligo affects a notable proportion of the population, with detected comorbidities supporting prior findings. To ensure reliable results, claims data should be validated through primary data linkage or sensitivity testing.

Albinism is a genetically heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by reduced or absent melanin synthesis, leading to variable hypopigmentation of the skin, hair, and eyes, and associated ocular abnormalities such as foveal hypoplasia, nystagmus, and reduced visual acuity. Although considered rare, the prevalence of albinism varies widely across regions and is likely underestimated in Europe, particularly due to mild phenotypes in fair-skinned populations. In European people with albinism (PWA), reduced cutaneous pigmentation increases susceptibility to ultraviolet radiation-induced damage and skin cancer, although overall cancer prevalence remains lower than in equatorial regions. Diagnosis and surveillance are challenging because many lesions are amelanotic, phenotypic expression is highly variable, and photoprotection practices are often suboptimal. This review summarizes current knowledge on the epidemiology, clinical presentation, cancer risk, and management of albinism in Europe, with particular emphasis on diagnostic challenges, the role of dermoscopy in skin cancer detection, and tailored preventive strategies. A multidisciplinary approach involving dermatology, ophthalmology, genetics, and supportive care is essential to improve early diagnosis, optimize surveillance, and reduce morbidity in this population.

Pityriasis versicolor is a superficial fungal infection of the skin caused by fungi of the genus Malassezia. Typically, patients present with well-defined, hypopigmented, scaly macules, or patches over seborrheic areas. However, rare presentations include papular, confetti-like spots, and folliculocentric, atrophic, and inverse forms. Diagnosis may be established clinically with the help of noninvasive diagnostic tools such as dermoscopy, Wood's lamp, and direct microscopic examinations. However, skin biopsies are imperative in equivocal cases. To date, 34 cases have been reported. This study presents a rare presentation of atrophying skin lesions in a patient with pityriasis versicolor.

Vitiligo is a common skin depigmentation disorder; assessing its state is crucial for the treatment outcome. Collecting multimodal data for vitiligo assessment is complex and costly in clinical practices, and the limited data size restricts the performance of deep learning models. Transfer learning can alleviate the shortage of training data in medical image recognition, however, its applications in vitiligo state assessment are constrained by feature differences between natural and medical images and insufficient generalization to different modalities. To address these challenges, this paper introduces a vitiligo state assessment method based on progressive transfer learning and multimodal domain adaptation. The scheme uses a large set of unlabeled medical images as a bridge to reduce the discrepancies between natural and medical images through multi-step fine-tuning. An adaptive parameter unfreezing strategy is then applied for the accurately labeled target data to improve the adaptability and accuracy of the model. In addition, an integrated multimodal domain adaptation approach based on CycleGAN and hue, saturation, value (HSV) color space transformation is proposed to reduce the impact of modality differences on transfer learning. Experimental results demonstrate that compared to the conventional transfer learning method, the proposed method improves the accuracy by 2.5% and 3.2% on the clinical and Wood's lamp modality datasets, respectively. This accurate vitiligo state assessment method can be applied to a wide range of multimodal dermatological diseases where labeled data is limited.

Vitiligo, an autoimmune skin disorder, is characterized by the loss of melanocytes, resulting in significant skin depigmentation. Ruxolitinib (RUX), which could target the JAK-STAT signaling pathway, plays a crucial role in vitiligo treatment but faces great challenges in transdermal delivery. Here, we developed RUX-laden silk fibroin nanoparticles to achieve transdermal delivery with the assistance of a CO2 ablative laser. In vitro assays demonstrated that the RUX-laden silk nanoparticles significantly inhibited the secretion of CXCL9 and CXCL10, and the phosphorylation of AKT2 and STAT3, indicating effective modulation of the JAK-STAT pathway. The RUX-laden silk nanoparticles exhibited excellent transdermal delivery capacity comparable to the Opzelura cream, which was further improved through a laser-assisted strategy. In vivo studies revealed that the transdermally delivered RUX-laden nanoparticles exhibited better skin toleration and significantly reduced the expression of multiple inflammatory cytokines such as CXCL9, CXCL10, IFN-γ and TNF-α, bringing substantial melanocyte recovery. The findings underscore the potential of silk-based delivery systems in enhancing therapeutic efficacy against vitiligo, which would improve pigmentation restoration and inflammation modulation in skin disorders.