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Blinded side‐to‐side comparison of topical corticosteroid and tacrolimus ointment in children with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis
Author(s) -
Arkwright P. D.,
Gillespie M. C.,
Ewing C. I.,
David T. J.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
clinical and experimental dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1365-2230
pISSN - 0307-6938
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2230.2006.02313.x
Subject(s) - tacrolimus , medicine , corticosteroid , atopic dermatitis , side effect (computer science) , dermatology , prospective cohort study , potency , surgery , transplantation , biochemistry , chemistry , computer science , in vitro , programming language
Summary There is little information on the relative efficacy of topical tacrolimus and corticosteroids in the treatment of atopic dermatitis (AD) in children. In a single‐centre, prospective, observer‐blinded, side‐to‐side comparative study (ISRCTN65507338), 96 children with moderately severe AD were enrolled. The study aimed to compare the relative effectiveness of the child's usual topical corticosteroid with 0.03% tacrolimus ointment applied for 1 week, and if there was no difference, 0.1% tacrolimus ointment applied for a further week. Topical tacrolimus was found to be more effective than topical corticosteroid in 72 of the 93 children (77%) who completed the study. Using multiple‐regression analysis with age, gender, pretreatment surface area affected and pretreatment corticosteroid potency as covariants, the only factor that reduced the chance of observing a beneficial effect with tacrolimus was moderate or potent topical corticosteroid use (OR = 0.13; 95% CI 0.02–0.74).