[Some features of primary facial erysipelas under the present conditions]

To establish the features of clinical and laboratory changes in facial erysipelas in relation to its form.

Twenty-three patients (15 women and 8 men) aged 31 to 78 years who were diagnosed with moderate facial erysipelas, primary facial erysipelas being present in 91% of cases were examined. The investigators studied the biochemical substrates and enzymes and composition of proteins in the serum by an electrophoretic method, the aggregation activity of red blood cells and platelets, plasma hemostasis (a coagulogram, levels of fibrinogen, antithrombin III, and D-dimer), and von Willebrand factor, a marker of vessel wall injury, on hospital admission at disease onset (days 1-3), over time (days 4-6, 7-9), and in convalescence (days 10-12), by obligatorily using control materials.

Bleeding disorders in facial erysipelas correspond to the vasculite purpuric type of hemorrhagic diathesis (according to the classification developed by Z. S. Barkagan) with the laboratory signs of evolving disseminated intravascular coagulation: impairments in erythrocyte hemostasis and blood vessel endothelium. The changes in the functional properties of red blood cells match with the suppression of metabolic processes. And if the neuraminidase effect of β-hemolytic streptococcus is shown at the level of the red blood cell membrane, the activity of NADase blocks processes in the entire macroenergetics. In the presence of a high fever reaction, the low levels of transaminases (aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase) and membrane enzymes (alkaline phosphatase, creatinine phosphokinase) decrease the detoxification capacities of serum and increase a load on blood albumin and erythrocyte barriers. Rapid normalization of C-reactive protein levels enables one to use this simple and highly sensitive test to monitor the involution of erysipelatous inflammation and the efficiency of treatment. The changes in the hemostatic system and metabolic tests are less pronounced in patients with facial erysipelas than in those with lower-extremity erysipelas.