new treatments available, but it is essential to have a precise diagnosis – time.news

by time news
from Vera Martinella

Still too many cases are not correctly recognized and treated, so many patients suffer consequences (even severe ones) at school and at work. Troubled sleep due to itching

Very dry skin, redness and itchingoften intense and sometimes uncontrollable, so much so as to even provoke severe sleep disturbances and therefore difficulty in carrying out school or work activities adequately. Not only: atopic dermatitis, hives and skin allergies still too often they are not correctly recognized and, therefore, not even treated. With serious consequences for the sick, for the national health system and for society as a whole, if we look at the costs deriving from the lack of productivity. Yet there is good news: scientific research has done and continues to do important progressso today there is greater knowledge on the causes and triggering mechanisms of the various pathologies on the one hand and, on the other, more effective treatments are available.

The importance of having a diagnosis

What is important to have a clear diagnosis – remember Ketty Peris, president of the Italian Society of Dermatology SIDeMaST, whose national conference is in progress in Milan -. In order to arrive at the most suitable therapeutic strategy, chosen by the dermatologist on the basis of the age of the patient and the severity of the symptoms, we must first be sure of which pathology we are facing and what are its causes, its triggering factors. Allergens often trigger or worsen skin lesionswhich can reach the body through the defective skin barrier, with food or with breathing, which must therefore be identified with precision. And then there is the climate: Intense heat and cold, together with too much humidity, are usually poorly tolerated by patients. As the experts gathered at the SIDeMaST annual congress recall, an increasing number of research confirms a genetic predisposition underlying these diseases and this increasingly directs them to personalized treatments, using targeted and biological drugs, which often prove to be more effective and less toxic.

Atopic dermatitis

Atopic dermatitis affects about one in 10 adults and one in four children in Italy, with a peak of incidence between 10 and 20 years of age. Especially in moderate and severe forms, the discomfort for patients, adults or children, can be of a significant entity, so as to compromise their quality of life and also have heavy psychological consequences. a chronic inflammatory disease – he says Paolo Daniele Pigatto, president of the congress and director of Dermatology at the Galeazzi Hospital in Milan -. The most frequent causes of the disease are a genetic predisposition to hypersensitivity to allergens present in the surrounding environment (in fact about 30% of patients sooner or later also present asthma and allergic rhino-conjunctivitis) and alterations of the skin barrier. In small patients, then, due to a compromised and less efficient skin barrier, they are often observed infections. Not usually a serious illness, but related to a significant impact on school and work performance (77% of people suffering from it), social life (78%) and social relationships (57%). The night itching causes sleep disturbances in 87% of adults and 60% of children. All factors that cause a sharp decline in the quality of life of those who suffer from it. Precisely to give immediate relief to the sick, generally at the beginning (as soon as the diagnosis is certain) we start with a sort of shock therapy to extinguish the inflammation and make the skin lesions disappear, after which we proceed with other treatments that serve to maintain the result achieved.

Therapy

In the therapeutic armamentarium of dermatologists, in addition to the classic topical therapies (to be applied directly to the skin) based on corticosteroids and systemic ones with traditional drugs such as cyclosporinetoday there are new weapons that see protagonists biological drugs – explains Peris, professor of Dermatology at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome and director of Dermatology at the Gemelli University Hospital Foundation -. The most modern therapies, in addition to biological drugs, are those that intervene in a targeted manner on the production and activity of some cytokines such as interleukin 4 and / or 13 or drugs that block the activity of enzymes called Jak-inhibitors. Thanks to these drugs it is currently possible to keep the disease under control, with considerable effectiveness and good tolerability by patients. To decide the strategy to be adopted, they evaluate themselves the intensity of itching, the extent and location of the lesions, the clinical course and the impact of the disease on the person concerned. The ultimate goal make the lesions on the skin and itching disappear, achieving long-term stabilization and reducing the severity and duration of exacerbation episodes. And to achieve it you need to use emollient products daily and avoid coming into contact with irritating or allergenic substances such as too “strong” soaps, wool, plants and grasses that can annoy – concludes Pigatto, associate professor of Dermatology at the University of Milan – . Of course it also helps to have a healthy lifestyletaking care of nutrition and doing regular physical activity.

June 25, 2022 (change June 25, 2022 | 12:37)

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