Apremilast and biologics: Characteristics of patients treated with apremilast before, during, or after a biological treatment.

Apremilast is an oral small molecule approved for the treatment of psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and oral ulcers associated with Behçet's disease. This research was conducted to describe the characteristics of patients who received treatment with apremilast for a skin disorder, either before, during, or after a biological treatment, with the aim of analyze the reasons that lead to start this drug in real clinical practice or suspend it for another. A total of 41 patients were enrolled: nine (22.0%) had received biological treatment prior to apremilast, seven (17.0%) both before and after apremilast and 25 (61.0%) after apremilast. One patient received concomitant treatment with adalimumab and apremilast. Most patients (85.4%) received apremilast as treatment for psoriasis. Reasons for starting apremilast were lack of efficacy with previous treatments (85.4%) and adverse effects or contraindication to previous treatments (14.6%), without statistically significant differences between patients who had received a previous biologic and those who had not. Drug survival was not influenced by previous biological treatment, but we found an increased risk of drug discontinuation in patients with chronic kidney disease (log-rank p = 0.028). The main reason of apremilast withdrawal was lack of adequate disease control (60.0%), most of whom required treatment with biologics. Therefore, despite the extensive development of new therapies for psoriasis and other dermatological conditions, apremilast is a widely used drug even in patients who are candidates for biologic treatment. Its initiation is more frequent due to poor disease control than because of other therapies contraindications.

Pemphigus Vulgaris Localized to the Scalp with Complete Response to Topical Steroids.

Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is an anti-cadherin autoimmune disease, characterized by the production of anti-desmoglein 3 (and to a lesser extent anti-desmoglein 1) antibodies, producing acanthosis, typically suprabasal, which clinically translates into flaccid blisters and erosions, generally starting on mucous membranes, with subsequent appearance of skin lesions. Only about 25 cases of PV of exclusively cutaneous location have been described in the literature. Treatment with potent topical steroids is usually sufficient to control the symptoms. We present the case of a 68-year-old female patient with localized PV in the scalp, presenting as alopecic and scabby plaque, with excellent response and hair regrowth with topical corticotherapy.

Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia Following a Patchy Pattern: A New Form of Clinical Presentation and a Challenging Diagnosis for the Dermatologist.

Central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia (CCCA) is included among the primary lymphocytic cicatricial alopecias. The current nomenclature of CCCA suggested by the North American Hair Research Society refers to the traditional clinical presentation pattern of this type of alopecia, which begins in the central area of the scalp and has a progressive and symmetric centrifuge evolution. However, some exceptions should be highlighted, and a new clinical variety of CCCA presenting with patches of hair loss affecting the lateral and posterior scalp has been recently described. Here, we report a new case of CCCA presenting with a patchy pattern. In addition to the fact that this new patchy presentation of CCCA is not contemplated in the current terminology, it has a difficult differential diagnosis with other alopecias that have patches as their presentation. In these cases, both the trichoscopy and the histopathology are indispensable for diagnosis that will allow a targeted treatment and avoid an unfortunate prognosis.