Introduction
Risankizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody that selectively targets interleukin-23. It is approved for treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. We conducted a 52-week monocentric retrospective study to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of risankizumab in a real-life setting.
Methods
Our study included 131 adults with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis all treated with risankizumab for at least 52 weeks. Patient characteristics and PASI (Psoriasis Area and Severity Index) at each visit were recorded. The percentages of patients achieving 75%/90%/100% (PASI 75/90/100) improvement in PASI with respect to baseline were registered.
Results
At week 52, 93.9%, 78.6%, and 61.1% of patients achieved PASI 75/90/100, respectively. An absolute PASI ≤ 2 was reached by 90.8% at week 52. The higher body mass index and the presence of cardio-metabolic comorbidities did not interfere with the odds of reaching PASI 75/90/100 at each time-point. At week 52, comparable percentages of patients achieved PASI 100, regardless of the involvement of difficult-to-treat-areas. No significant safety findings were recorded and none of the patients had to interrupt the treatment because of adverse events.
Conclusions
Our findings confirmed that risankizumab is a safe and effective therapeutic option for the treatment of a wide “real-life” cohort of patients with psoriasis.
Palmoplantar psoriasis (PP) is a type of psoriasis that involves the skin of the palms and soles and can present as hyperkeratotic, similar to the vulgaris psoriasis of the body. Apremilast, as an oral inhibitor of phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4), is currently approved for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis and for moderate‐to‐severe psoriasis in adult patients who have not responded or have contraindications or do not tolerate other systemic treatments. We evaluated the efficacy and safety of apremilast in the treatment of non‐pustular palmo‐plantar psoriasis in a cohort of 12 patients. We found a clinical response of clear/almost clear palmoplantar psoriasis (PPPGA score 0/1) in 83.33% of our patients, at week 16. No significant safety issues were reported and none of our patients had to discontinue the drug.
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