Background:Xerotic changes in atopic skin are considered to be related to a decrease in the water permeability barrier.Whether abnormal skin barrier function is the main cause of atopic dermatitis(AD)or a secondary change of the disease is still controversial.Noninvasive bioengineering methods,including the measurement of the transepidermal water loss(TEWL)and water capacitance,have been commonly used to evaluate skin barrier function.Aim:To evaluate the correlation between the clinical features of each evaluation site(severity of AD)and skin barrier function.Methods:TEWL,capacitance,and pH were checked on five evaluation sites:postauricle,forearm,abdomen,thigh,and popliteal fossa.The subjects included 25 patients,both adolescents and adults,with AD and 25 age-matched normal controls.The clinical severity,from 0(no clinical manifestation)to 3(severe),was also scored for erythema,induration/papulation,lichenification,and xerosis on each evaluation site of the AD patients.Results:Based on the data,we found that the clinical severity score was correlated with TEWL and capacitance in more than one-half of the evaluation sites.Erythema and induration/papulation showed a statistically significant correlation with TEWL in most cases(P < 0.05,four sites).Lichenification and xerosis showed a significant correlation with capacitance in most cases(P < 0.05,four sites).In most cases,severity scoring of the clinical features did not show a significant correlation with skin pH.The patients showed higher TEWL and lower capacitance than normal controls(P < 0.05,all five sites).Conclusions:The results of our study suggest that skin barrier function,measured by TEWL and capacitance,and clinical severity show a statistically significant correlation in patients with AD.
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