Correlation Between Clinical Symptoms of Atopic Dermatitis in Children and Serum IgE Level

Abstract

Atopic dermatitis (i.e) Atopic eczema is a long-lasting skin disease with known hereditary component. Blood tests, especially IgE antibodies whose levels are often high in AD, are helpful. The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between the clinical symptoms and the level of the IgE antibodies in atopic dermatitis patients, depending on their age. Methodology: A retrospective study was conducted for the period between 2005 and 2010 and included were all the patients (62) in whom the AD was diagnosed. The results showed that the IgE level was highest in the patient group from 16-25 years and also seen was the tendency of IgE decreasing level correlated to increasing patient age.

Correlation Between Clinical Symptoms of Atopic Dermatitis in Children and Serum IgE Level

MED ARH, 2011; 65(3): 168-169

ORIGINAL PAPER

Correlation Between Clinical Symptoms of Atopic

Dermatitis in Children and Serum IgE Level

Faruk AlendarDepartment of Dermatovenerology, Clinical Center of University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

one from 500 to 1000kU/l, third from 1000 to 1500kU/l and fourth category from 1500 to 2000kU/l and the level of the IgE depending on the age. Disease was classied according to its duration. Also we calculated the SCORAD Index for the children younger than two years and compared it with the level of the IgE (Figure 3).

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

All together 62 patients were diagnosed, 38 (61.3%) were female, 24 (38.7%) were male (Table 1). According to the patients age, in the rst group (0-5 years) the level of IgE was 383kU/l. In the group from 6-10 years IgE level was 389kU/l. In third group, years from 11-15, IgE level was 709kU/l. In the fourth we noticed the highest level of IgE 1125kU/l and in the fth group, more than 25 years, level of IgE was 826kU/l (Table 4). According to how long disease has lasted the results are: up to one year 15 patients, from two to ve years 16 patients, from six to ten years 12 patients and more than ten years 19 patients (Table 5). By 48.4% of patients level of IgE was 40 to 500kU/l, by 19.3% of them IgE-level was from 500 to 1000kU/l, by 9.7% of patients level of IgE was in the group from 1000 to 1500kU/l and by 22.6% of patients IgE level was

Atopic dermatitis (i.e) Atopic eczema is a long-lasting skin disease with known hereditary component. Blood tests, especially IgE antibodies whose levels are often high in AD, are helpful. The aim of this study

was to investigate the correlation between the clinical symptoms and the level of the IgE antibodies in atopic dermatitis patients, depending on their age. Methodology: A retrospective study was conducted for the period between 2005 and 2010 and included were all the patients (62) in whom the AD was diagnosed. The results showed that the IgE level was highest in the patient group from 16-25 years and also seen was the tendency of IgE decreasing level correlated to increasing patient age. Key words: atopic dermatitis, ige level, scorad index

Corresponding Author: Faruk Alendar,MD, PhD. Clinical center of University of Sarajevo, Bolnicka 25. derm_ [email protected]

1. INTRODUCTION

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a pruritic disease which usually starts in early infancy but can also appear in adults. It is typied by pruritus, eczematous lesions, xerosis and lichenication of the skin (1, 2, 3). Atopic dermatitis belongs to atopic diseases, because it is genetically conditioned disease with very strong cause eect factors from outside. AD is a common, acute, subacute or chronic skin disease (4, 5, 6).

2. METHODOLOGY

The retrospective study included all patients in whom AD was diagnosed during the period from the end of 2005 to the 1st of July 2010 at Dermatovenerology Department of Clinical Center University of Sarajevo. The following tables and graphics describe the results according to the sex and age of the patient (Table 1, Table 2, Figure 1), level of the IgE classied into the four categories (Table 3), namely rst category from 40 to 500kU/l, second

Figure 1. Dennie-Morgan fold

Figure 2. Nipple dermatitis Figure 3. SCORAD Index

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Correlation Between Clinical Symptoms of Atopic Dermatitis in Children and Serum IgE Level

from 1500 to 2000kU/l (Table 4).

Correlation analysis between severity of the clinical picture (SCORAD Index) with the level of IgE, according to linear model by Pearson, indicates that there is almost no relation between IgE level and the severity of the clinical symptoms (Pearson Rho=0.0108; p>0.05).

Sex n (%)

Male 24 (38.7) Female 38 (61.3) Total 62 (100) Table 1. Gender structure of examinees

Group

Patient categorized into the following age groups:

n (%)

I from 0-5 years 15 (24.2) II from 6-10 years 8 (13)

III from 11-15 years 9 (14.5)

IV from 16-25 years 9 (14.5)

V more than 25 years 21 (33.8) Table 2. Patients age groups

Category )G%LEVELCLASSICATION n (%)

I FROM TO K5 L 30 (48.4)

II FROM TO K5 L 12 (19.3)

III from 1000 to 1500

K5 L 6 (9.7)

IV from 1500 to 2000

K5 L 14 (22.6)

Table 3. Categories of IgE level

Group Age-dependent serum

IgE level K5 L

I from 0 to 5 years 383

II from 6 to 10 years 389 III from 11 to 15 years 709 IV from 16 to 25 years 1125 V more than 25 years 862 Table 4. Age-dependent serum IgE level

Disease duration Number of patients < 1 year 1525 years 16610 years 12> 10 years 19Table 5. Disease duration

4. CONCLUSION

Looking in our statistic results, level of IgE was the highest in the group from 16 to 25 years and that result compared with result of the fth group showed the signicant tendency in decreasing of IgE level correlated with increasing age of atopic dermatitis diagnosed

patients (Table 4). Depending on how long disease had lasted we can say that almost all patients had diagnosed AD from early childhood (Table 5). If we compare the result of SCORAD Index with level of IgE in children younger than two years we can see that level of IgE does not follow the severity of clinical symptoms, namely they are not in association.

REFERENCES

1. Williams HC, Burney PG, Strachan D et al. The UK Working Partys diagnostic criteria for AD. II. Observer variation of clinical diagnosis and signs of atopic dermatitis. Br J Dermatol, 1994; 131: 397-405.

2. European Task Force on Atopic Dermatitis. Severity scoring of atopic dermatitis; the SCORAD Index. Dermatology, 1993; 186: 23-31.

3. Kunz B, Ring J, Taieb A et al. Clinical Validation and Guidelines for the SCORAD Index: Consensus Report of the European Task Force on Atopic Dermatitis. Dermatology, 1997; 195:10-19.

4. Abramovits W. Atopic Dermatitis. J Am Acad Dermatol, 2005 Jul; 53(1, Suppl 1): S86-935. Williams HC. Clinical practice. Atopic dermatitis. N Engl J Med, 2005 Jun 2; 352(22): 2314-24.

6. Williams HC. On the denition and epidemiology of atopic dermatitis. Dermatol Clin, 1995..

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