Analysis of factors influencing target PASI responses and side effects of methotrexate monotherapy in plaque psoriasis: a multicenter study of 1521 patients.

Methotrexate (MTX) is commonly used as first-line systemic treatment agent in psoriasis. We aimed to evaluate the clinical characteristics and treatment responses of patients with psoriasis undergoing MTX monotherapy. Data from adult patients with plaque psoriasis who received MTX monotherapy for at least 3 months between April 2012 and April 2022 were retrospectively evaluated in 19 tertiary care centers. Our study included 722 female and 799 male patients, a total of 1521 participants. The average age of the patients was 44.3 ± 15.5 years. Mode of treatment was oral in 20.4% of patients while in 79.4% it was subcutaneous. The median treatment duration was 8 months (IQR = 5-15). The median weekly dose was 15 mg (IQR = 11-15). 1448 (95.2%) patients were taking folic acid supplementation. At week 12, 16.3% of the patients achieved PASI (Psoriasis Area and Severity Index) 90 response while at week 24, 37.3% achieved it. Logistic regression analysis for week 12 identified the following independent factors affecting PASI 90 achievement positively: median weekly MTX dose ≤ 15 mg (P = 0.011), subcutaneous administration (P = 0.005), no prior systemic treatment (< 0.001) and folic acid use (0.021). In logistic regression analysis for week 24; median weekly MTX dose ≤ 15 mg (P = 0.001), baseline PASI ≥ 10 (P < 0.001), no prior systemic treatment (P < 0.004), folic acid use (P = 0.001) and absence of comorbidities (P = 0.009) were determined as independent factors affecting the achievement of PASI 90. Adverse effects were observed in 38.8% of the patients, with nausea/vomiting (23.9%) and transaminase elevation (13%) being the most common. The most common reasons for interruptions (15.3%) and discontinuations (27.1%) of the treatment were patient related individual factors. The use of MTX as the first systemic treatment agent, at doses ≤ 15 mg/week and concurrent folic acid application are positive predictive factors for achieving the target PASI response both at weeks 12 and 24. In our study, which is one of the most comprehensive studies on MTX treatment in psoriasis, we observed that MTX is an effective and safe treatment option.

Dermoscopic Features of Cutaneous Vasculitis.

INTRODUCTION: Dermoscopy has become widespread in the diagnosis of inflammatory skin diseases. Cutaneous vasculitis (CV) is characterized by inflammation of vessels, and a rapid and reliable technique is required for the diagnosis. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to define CV dermoscopic features and increase the diagnostic accuracy of dermoscopy with machine learning (ML) methods. METHODS: Eighty-nine patients with clinically suspected CV were included in the study. Dermoscopic images were obtained before biopsy using a polarized dermoscopy. Dermoscopic images were independently evaluated, and interobserver variability was calculated. Decision Tree, Random Forest, and K-Nearest Neighbors were used as ML classification models. RESULTS: The histopathological diagnosis of 58 patients was CV. Three patterns were observed: homogeneous pattern, mottled pattern, and meshy pattern. There was a significant difference in background color between the CV and non-CV groups (P = 0.001). The milky red and livedoid background color were specific markers in the differential diagnosis of CV (sensitivity 56.7%, specificity 96.3%, sensitivity 29.4%, specificity 99.2%, respectively). Red blotches were significantly more common in CV lesions (P = 0.038). Red dots, comma vessels, and scales were more common in the non-CV group (P = 0.002, P = 0.002, P = 0.003, respectively). Interobserver agreement was very good for both pattern (κ = 0.869) and background color analysis (κ = 0.846) (P < 0.001). According to ML classifiers, the background color and lack of scales were the most significant dermoscopic aspects of CV. CONCLUSIONS: Dermoscopy may guide as a rapid and reliable technique in CV diagnosis. High accuracy rates obtained with ML methods may increase the success of dermoscopy.

Keratosis Pilaris Atrophicans Faciei: A Case Treated with 585 nm Diode Laser, a Novel Fractional Solid-State.

Keratosis pilaris atrophicans faciei (KPAF) is a rare, hereditary, follicular disorder categorized in the atrophicans subtypes of keratosis pilaris (KP). Nowadays it can be treated with light and laser devices. Lasers with wavelengths <600 nm, especially pulsed dye laser (PDL), are effective for treatments of KPAF. Here, we present a case with KPAF treated with 585 nm diode laser, a kind of laser system functioning with differential wavelength modified optically pumped semiconductor (D-WMOPS) technology. Our case is the first patient reported to have been treated with this laser technology in the literature.

Risankizumab for the Treatment of the Patients with Moderate to Severe Plaque Psoriasis During a 24-Week Period: Real-Life Experience.

Introduction: Several authors have reported their experiences in real-world clinical practice, confirming the therapeutic efficacy of risankizumab in plaque psoriasis. We aimed to reflect our experience with risankizumab treatment in patients with psoriasis. Materials and Methods: Patients who presented to the dermatology outpatient clinics of two tertiary care centers between November 2021 and August 2022, diagnosed with psoriasis and treated with risankizumab, constituted the target population. Data including gender, age, weight, type of psoriasis, affected body sites, disease duration, previous treatments, duration of risankizumab treatment, psoriasis area and severity index scores, comorbidities, the reasons for drug discontinuation, adverse effects, and the patients' naïve or non-naïve status were obtained from electronic patient folders. Results: Overall, 120 cases were included. While 73 (60.8%) cases were male, 47 (39.2%) were female. Eighty-six (68.3%) of all cases were biologic non-naive. A total of 49 patients (40.8%) had comorbidities. No significant correlations existed between biologic-naïve or non-naïve status, comorbidity status, and the PASI 75-90-100 responses. Conclusion: Risankizumab is an effective treatment option for both biologic naive or non-naive patients with or without comorbidities. However, long-term studies, including more extensive patient series, are needed to validate its efficacy and safety in real-life clinical settings.

Effectiveness and safety of ustekinumab for the treatment of psoriasis; six years of clinical experience.

BACKGROUND: This work aimed to investigate the long-term clinical experience with ustekinumab in cases with psoriasis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective cohort research group consisted of cases who presented to the dermatology outpatient clinics between January 2015 and January 2021, diagnosed with psoriasis, and were treated with ustekinumab. Data including gender, age, weight, disease duration, naïve and non-naïve status, psoriasis type, duration of medication, comorbidities, psoriasis area and severity index scores, the causes of treatment discontinuation, and previous treatments were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed. RESULTS: 160 cases with psoriasis were treated with ustekinumab during the research period. Twenty-four patients were excluded. Among 136 cases, 84 (61.8%) were male and 52 (38.2%) were female. We determined 80.55% of the non-naïve cases responded to ustekinumab. CONCLUSION: Ustekinumab can be a suitable treatment option for non-naïve and resistant patients. Our data suggest the positive effect persists in cases with favorable responses to the first or second dose of ustekinumab. Also, we determined male cases gave more rapid and more robust responses than female cases, and patients were more willing about continuing the treatment.

Internalized Stigma in Hidradenitis Suppurativa: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) causes significant physical, social, and psychological burdens. Internalized stigma, acceptance of negative attitudes and stereotypes of society regarding a person's illness, has not been studied previously in HS. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to investigate the internalized stigma state of HS patients and identify the factors affecting it. METHODS: This multicenter, prospective, cross-sectional study included 731 patients. Internalized Stigma Scale (ISS), Hurley staging, Physician Global Assessment, Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), Skindex-16, Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and Visual Analog Scale (VAS)-pain score were used in the study. RESULTS: The mean ISS value (57.50 ± 16.90) was comparable to the mean ISS values of studies in visible dermatological and various psychiatric diseases. A significant correlation was found between the mean values of ISS and all disease activity scores, quality of life measures, BDI-II, and VAS-pain scores. Obesity, family history, low education and income level, vulva/scrotum involvement and being actively treated are significant and independent predictive factors for high internalized stigma in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: HS patients internalize society's negative judgements, which may create a profound negative effect on access to health care. Therefore, in addition to suppressing disease activity, addressing internalized stigma is fundamental for improving health care quality.

Real-life efficacy and drug continuation of secukinumab in treating moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in Aegean region of Turkey: a multicenter retrospective study and systematic review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Secukinumab was demonstrated to be efficient in the treatment of moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in the phase studies. Real-life treatment experiences obtained from patients that do not meet the inclusion criteria of phase studies can provide valuable information on efficacy and safety results. Results may also differ in different ethnic populations. OBJECTIVE: To investigate short and long-term efficacy and drug continuation of secukinumab in Turkish population. METHODS: The study conducted in three tertiary care psoriasis centers. Patients' demographic characteristics and week 0 / 4th week / 12th week / 1st year PASI values were analyzed. For systematic review of the literature a PubMed search using the keywords "secukinumab and real and psoriasis" from inception to April 2021 was performed. RESULTS: Mean PASI scores improved the compared to baseline at all assessment weeks (p = 0.000). In multivariate model, we found that bioexperience have negative influence on the PASI90 response at week 4. Univariate analysis showed significant relationship only between PASI90 response rate and gender at week 12 and year 1. Approximately 85% of patients remained on secukinumab treatment at the end of one year. CONCLUSIONS: Secukinumab seems to be an effective treatment option for plaque psoriasis. According to our knowledge, this is the first study concerning about long-term efficacy and drug continuation of secukinumab from Turkey.

Ixekizumab for the treatment of the patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis: Clinical data from a real-world experience.

Real-life data about any particular treatment is very helpful for clinicians, particularly when managing a chronic disease such as psoriasis. In our study, we aimed to reflect our clinical experience during 48 weeks with an IL-17 antagonist ixekizumab. This study was designed as a retrospective multi-center study. Four tertiary referral centers participated into the study. The patients who did not present to the clinics for 3rd month follow-up were excluded. Data including gender, age, weight, type of psoriasis, additional sites on the body, disease duration, previous treatments, duration of medication of ixekizumab, psoriasis area and severity index scores, previous treatments, and comorbidities, the reasons for drug discontinuation, adverse effects and the patients' naïve or non-naïve status were retrieved from electronic patient folders. Although 267 patients met the inclusion criteria, 28 patients were excluded since they did not present to the clinic for 3rd month follow-up so 239 cases were included mmüne research. We determined significant correlations between naive and non-naive cases about getting PASI 75 and PASI 90 responses for all cases (p = 0.005 and p = 0.028, respectively) and between comorbid and non-comorbid cases about getting PASI 90 and PASI 100 responses for all cases (p = 0.021 and p = 0.029, respectively). When we investigate as female and male patients separately, non-comorbid female cases can achieve PASI 100 response significantly easier than comorbid female patients (p = 0.019). Clinicians can use ixekizumab safely mmüne treatment of their patients with psoriasis and get PASI 75-90-100 responses quickly. Ixekizumab is more effective for naive cases but it may also be a treatment option for biologic experienced patients. The ratio of PASI 75-90-100 responses are better in non-comorbid cases than comorbid patients nevertheless ixekizumab is a quite effective agent mmüne treatment of comorbid cases.

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on psoriasis patients, and their immunosuppressive treatment: a cross-sectional multicenter study from Turkey.

BACKGROUND: Immunosuppressive therapy has been a great concern during the pandemic. This study aimed to evaluate the pandemic's impact on psoriasis patients treated with immunosuppressive drugs. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The multicenter study was conducted in 14 tertiary dermatology centers. Demographic data, treatment status, disease course, and cases of COVID-19 were evaluated in patients with psoriasis using the immunosuppressive treatment. RESULTS: Of 1827 patients included, the drug adherence rate was 68.2%. Those receiving anti-interleukin (anti-IL) drugs were more likely to continue treatment than patients receiving conventional drugs (OR = 1.50, 95% CI, 1.181-1.895, p = .001). Disease worsening rate was 24.2% and drug dose reduction increased this rate 3.26 and drug withdrawal 8.71 times. Receiving anti-TNF or anti-IL drugs was associated with less disease worsening compared to conventional drugs (p = .038, p = .032; respectively). Drug withdrawal causes were 'unable to come' (39.6%), 'COVID concern' (25.3%), and 'physician's and patient's co-decision' (17.4%). Four patients had COVID-19 infection with mild symptoms. The incidence was 0.0022% while it was 0.0025% in the general population. CONCLUSION: Our study shows that psoriasis patients using systemic immunosuppressive do not have a higher, but even lower COVID-19 risk than the general population, and treatment compliance with biological drugs is higher.

Atopic dermatitis, inhalant allergy and food allergy: A paediatric approach.

Food and inhalant allergens have also been identified as potential trigger factors of atopic dermatitis symptoms. Here we aimed to investigate relationships between atopic dermatitis and inhalant-food allergen sensitization in Turkish children with atopic dermatitis. We included 70 patients (42 male, 28 female) with atopic dermatitis and 45 controls (30 male, 15 female) with no atopy, no atopy familial history, no atopy clinical findings no atopic dermatitis. We noted patients' and controls' age, gender, passive smoking exposure, atopy, xerosis, bath water temperature, shower gel type, clothes detergent type, blood hemoglobin, blood eosinophil count, blood eosinophil percent, values of serum immunoglobulin E, serum immunoglobulin A, serum immunoglobulin G, serum immunoglobulin M, results of inhalant allergen, and food allergen testing. We found that nine cases had inhalant allergen sensitization and 21 cases had food allergen sensitization. There were significant relationships between cases and controls in terms of count of eosinophil and percent of eosinophil (P = .008, P = .009, respectively). Humoral and cellular allergen-specific immune responses to food and inhalant allergens can be detected in patients with atopic dermatitis. Accordingly, we believe that blood eosinophil count and percent are more valuable laboratory parameters than serum total IgE for following patients with atopic dermatitis.

Investigation of thyroid blood tests and thyroid ultrasound findings of patients with rosacea.

We aimed to investigate the relationship between rosacea and thyroid diseases by analyzing thyroid blood tests and ultrasound findings of our patients recently diagnosed with rosacea. This study was designed as a prospective, single-center study. Dermatological examination findings, lesion locations were recorded, and rosacea clinical scores were calculated for all study group patients. The control group consisted of completely healthy women presented to our hospital during the study period for check-up purposes. Serum-free thyroxine, free triiodothyronine, thyroid-stimulating hormone, antithyroglobulin antibody, antithyroid peroxidase antibody levels were measured, and thyroid ultrasound examinations were performed for all study participants. The entire study cohort consisted of 123 patients (63 cases and 60 controls). There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of mean patient age (P < .05). Cheek was the most common lesion location (96.8%). There was no difference between the groups in terms of thyroid-related laboratory parameters. However, anti-TPO levels differed significantly with increasing disease severity (ie, RCSs). There were significant relationships between cheek lesions and fT4 (P = .021), while nose and chin lesions were associated with fT3 (P = .01, P = .001). Thyroid ultrasound findings revealed that rosacea patients tended to have larger thyroid nodules and more heterogeneous thyroid parenchymas than controls. Our findings indicate that thyroid blood tests, including thyroid autoantibodies, should be tested and thyroid ultrasounds should be performed in patients diagnosed with rosacea. However, these findings need to be validated by prospective studies conducted in larger patient series with more extended follow-up periods.