El-Esawy F, et al. - Researchers examined patients with recalcitrant cutaneous warts to assess serum retinol-binding protein (RBP) level as well as its correlation with disease pathogenesis. They included 50 patients with recalcitrant cutaneous warts and 30 apparently healthy controls in this study and used an ELISA technique to measure serum RBP level among the participants. Patients with recalcitrant warts vs controls had significantly lower serum RBP level. However, it did not differ in regard to various clinical parameters in studied patients. Low serum RBP was identified as a reliable indicator of vitamin A (retinol) deficiency. It was relatively cheap and yielded high specificity and sensitivity (100% each). Findings are suggestive of a possible role of low serum RBP in the pathogenesis of recalcitrant cutaneous warts.