Developments highlight Eczema Awareness Month

Recent developments in atopic dermatitis and eczema reported on Healio.com/Dermatology highlight Eczema Awareness Month in October.

Study findings include that risk factors may predict persistent atopic dermatitis in children and that Dupixent shows efficacy in treating atopic dermatitis in adults:

Skin phenotype of atopic dermatitis identified in infants

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine have identified the skin phenotype of atopic dermatitis in infants, according to a press release.

The study, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, investigated lesional and nonlesional skin biopsies from 19 infants aged younger than 5 years with atopic dermatitis (AD). The researchers, Emma Guttman-Yassky, MD, PhD, and Amy S. Paller, MD, determined that the nonlesional skin of young children with early eczema is already highly abnormal with significant immune activation. Read more

Provider-based data reveal greater asthma, reduced eczema rates

Provider-based diagnosis data yielded an association between food allergy and the development of respiratory allergy, along with lower rates of eczema and higher rates of asthma than previously reported, according to published findings.

“While studies that utilize participant reporting are a valuable tool when studying changing disease patterns across large populations, they have limitations including honesty, introspective ability and understanding of complex disease processes,” David A. Hill, MD, PhD, physician fellow in the department of pediatrics at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and colleagues wrote. Read more

Risk factors may predict persistent atopic dermatitis in children

Childhood atopic dermatitis subsides by adulthood in most cases; however, clinical factors such as already persistent disease, later onset, and/or more severe disease increases the risk for persistence, according to study results.

“Atopic dermatitis (AD)/eczema is a chronic inflammatory skin disease with a clinical course that varies widely between patients,” Jonathan I. Silverberg, MD, PhD, MPH, of the department of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and colleagues wrote. Read more

Dupixent shows efficacy in treating atopic dermatitis

Adults with atopic dermatitis who were treated with Dupixent in two identical phase 3 trials experienced improvement in severity of disease and in symptoms including pruritus, anxiety and depression, according to study results recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

“These results support a growing body of evident for Dupixent as a potential new treatment option for patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis who are struggling to control their disease,” researcher Eric L. Simpson, MD, MCR, Oregon Health and Science University, stated in a press release form Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Read more