Plain Language Summaries of Dermatological Studies
June 2014
in “
British Journal of Dermatology
”
TLDR Eczema patients have a lower skin lipid to protein ratio, older and longer-staying hospital patients are more likely to get pressure ulcers, hair loss in AGA is linked to muscle degeneration, vitamin D deficiency is common in alopecia areata and linked to its severity, standard liver tests don't effectively detect fibrosis in psoriasis patients on methotrexate, and bullous pemphigoid patients have a higher death risk but combination therapy may reduce it.
In June 2014, researchers discovered that the lipid to protein ratio in the stratum corneum is significantly reduced in atopic eczema patients, which correlates with disease severity, based on a study with 29 eczema patients and 15 controls. Another study of 246,162 hospitalized patients over five years identified risk factors for pressure ulcers, including higher age and longer hospital stays. A study on androgenetic alopecia (AGA) involving 8 AGA patients, 5 with telogen effluvium, and 5 controls found that the arrector pili muscle degenerates in AGA. Additionally, a study with alopecia areata patients showed a 90.7% vitamin D deficiency rate and an inverse correlation between vitamin D levels and alopecia severity. A review of 17 studies indicated that standard liver tests are inadequate for detecting fibrosis in psoriasis patients treated with methotrexate, suggesting a combination of tests like Fibroscan and blood tests may be more effective. Lastly, a study in Singapore involving 359 patients found that mortality risk in bullous pemphigoid patients was 2.74 times higher than the general population, with combination therapy showing lower mortality than single-agent treatments.
