0000000000398017
AUTHOR
D. Bianchini
Improving the disease awareness: how a communication campaign brings hidradenitis suppurativa to the light
Background: Hidradenitis suppurativa is an inflammatory skin disease that presents a recurrence of painful and suppurating lesions in the apocrine gland-bearing regions, with a strong impact on the patients’ life quality. Despite its peculiar presentation, early forms are often underestimated by patients and this would inevitably result in late diagnosis and delayed therapy. Objectives: Improved communication around the disease could facilitate self-diagnosis and a quicker response from healthcare practitioners, especially in this moment when we dispose of effective treatment against this disease. Methods: A HS awareness campaign was conducted for 2 years with the help of a media agency and…
Evidence for a 'window of opportunity' in hidradenitis suppurativa treated with adalimumab: a retrospective, real-life multicentre cohort study
BACKGROUND The anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α adalimumab is the only licenced biologic for moderate-to-severe hidradenitis suppurativa (HS). No predictors of response have been identified so far. OBJECTIVES To identify clinical parameters predicting response to adalimumab and confirm its efficacy/safety. METHODS The data of 389 patients with HS treated with adalimumab in 21 Italian centres were reviewed. Sex, age at onset/diagnosis/baseline, body mass index, smoking, phenotype, previous treatments, concomitant antibiotics and 'therapeutic delay', defined as the time from HS onset to adalimumab initiation, were assessed. Response to adalimumab and its impact on quality of life (QoL) wer…