A smaller percentage of atopic dermatitis (AD) patients with high baseline serum total IgE achieved a good response to treatment, compared with AD patients with lower serum total IgE at baseline, in a retrospective study of Finnish patients.
After adjustment of the data from the multivariate analyses, “the presence of contact allergies and high baseline IgE values [greater than or equal to] 10,0000 IU/mL remained risk factors for poor long-term outcome and were statistically significantly negatively associated with a good treatment response (OR [odds ratio], 0.162 and 0.062, respectively), and with complete remission (OR 0.287 and 0.158, respectively),” wrote Ville Kiiski of Skin and Allergy Hospital, Helsinki, and his colleagues.
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The study comprised 169 individuals aged 14-78 with atopic dermatitis. Patients were reevaluated a mean of 4.15 years following the first visit to the specialized AD clinic at Skin and Allergy Hospital of Helsinki University Central Hospital. They received topical treatments as either maintenance therapy with tacrolimus or maintenance treatment with either a combination of topical tacrolimus and topical corticosteroids, or topical corticosteroids alone. A dermatologist provided the patients with a long-term treatment plan, and a nurse provided “hands-on training for adequate topical therapy regimens,” when necessary.
“In patients with baseline IgE [greater than or equal to] 10,000 IU/mL, proportions achieving complete remission or a good treatment response were only 8.7% and 14.3%, compared with 51.6% and 79.7% in patients with IgE [less than] 1,000 IU/mL, and 36.9% and 58.1% in patients with IgE 1,000-10.000 IU/mL, respectively,” the researchers wrote.
While this study’s results suggest that serum total IgE is a predictor of long-term treatment outcome in AD patients, a larger, prospective study is needed to confirm this, they added.
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Read the study in Acta Dermato-Venereologica (doi: 10.2340/00015555-2126).