Evaluation of clinical efficacy and safety of Pimecrolimus (cream 1%) in the treatment of patients with atopic dermatitis – polish experience

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic and relapsing inflammatory skin disease. Strong need for safe and effective anti-
-inflammatory agents in the treatment of AD patients resulted in invention of a new group of therapeutics — calcineurine inhibitors.
The aim of the study was to evaluate efficacy and safety of Pimecrolimus (cream 1%) in the short term treatment of AD patients.
We investigated 76 children aged from 6 to 10 years presenting mild or moderate type of the disease. Patients were clinically evaluated according to IGA (Investigator Global Assessment) index before treatment and after 15 and 29 days of therapy. We also evaluated skin pruritus in the scale of 0 to 3 points.
At the starting point of the trial most patients presented mild (48.7%) or moderate (47.4%) skin inflammation. After 4 weeks of treatment majority of patients were nearly asymptomatic (52.8%) or clear of skin lesions (27.8%). Differences of clinical evaluations were statistically significant (p<0.001). Before treatment skin pruritus was evaluated as moderate in 56.6% of cases and after 4 weeks of therapy most patients reported mild intensity of itching sensation (47.2%). The difference was statistically significant (p<0.001).
We were able to present that pimecrolimus is an effective topical anti-inflammatory agent which reduces skin pruritus in the treatment of AD patients.