A study of changes in quality of life of patients with atopic dermatitis receiving inpatient therapy.

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  • アトピー性皮膚炎の入院療法における Quality of Life推移の検討
  • アトピーセイ ヒフエン ノ ニュウイン リョウホウ ニ オケル Quality of Life スイイ ノ ケントウ

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In recent years, the importance of assessment of quality of life (QOL) of patients has come to be gradually recognized. Patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) may experience intense itching and suffer discrimination on the basis of appearance, resulting in decreased QOL. In this study, we assessed QOL of patients with AD who had received inpatient treatment at our department. In the Dermatology Quality of Life Index (DLQI)-based QOL assessment performed on admission, all question items received high scores; in contrast, at the time of discharge after inpatient therapy, all these items received significantly lower scores. Additionally, the results of severity classification of AD, based on the Japanese Dermatological Association guidelines and the scores on itching visual analogue scale, as well as levels of serum thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC) and lactate dehydrogenase—which are disease progression markers in blood—had significantly improved after hospitalization. Furthermore, DLQI scores of all items were positively correlated with serum TARC levels on admission, which indicated that QOL was increasingly impaired in patients with severe AD. On the contrary, there was no correlation between the DLQI scores of most items and serum TARC levels at discharge, which may be explained as follows: reduction in DLQI scores and improvement in QOL because of remission of symptoms on the skin surface observed at discharge. However, inclusion of patients with relatively high serum TARC levels might have prevented the demonstration of a correlation. In AD treatment, we recommend that clinicians consider evaluating both skin manifestations as well as QOL, in addition to monitoring disease progression markers, such as serum TARC.

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