Age and gender influence on HIDRAdisk outcomes in adalimumab‐treated hidradenitis suppurativa patients

Abstract

Background Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic relapsing inflammatory skin disease characterized by a significant impairment of patients’ quality of life (QoL). It has been recently found that clinical severity of HS does not correlate well with QoL. Therefore, it is important to enhance the evaluation of severity considering the disease burden on QoL. Recently, a new graphical tool able to better describe HS burden, the so‐called HIDRAdisk, has been introduced. Objective To investigate the utility of HIDRAdisk in clinical practice before and after treatment and to analyse whether specific factors such as age and gender may influence the outcomes in patients with moderate‐to‐severe HS. Methods A single‐centre retrospective study on 24 patients (13F/11M, mean age 38 ± 15 years) with moderate‐to‐severe HS was performed. Clinical data (disease severity and quality of life) were collected at baseline and after 12 weeks of adalimumab. Results HIDRAdisk showed significantly better improvements in males (69.8 ± 6.2–49.6 ± 10.8) compared to females (80.7 ± 6.0–72.3 ± 6.7), P <0.001. A significant correlation was found in the total population between HS severity values measured through the modified Sartorius score (mSS) and QoL measured through HIDRAdisk. As regards the relationship between disease outcomes and age, a trend for better HIDRAdisk outcomes in younger patients (<40 years) compared to older ones was observed. Conclusions HIDRAdisk appears as a complete and informative tool which can easily measure the global burden of HS, guiding treatment choice and evaluating its efficacy.

Quality of Life in Hidradenitis Suppurativa: An Update

“…In a study comparing the effect of adalimumab versus rifampicin plus clindamycin on the HRQoL of HS patients, both groups achieved significant HRQoL improvement as measured by the Hidradisk [ 46 ]. In those subjects treated with adalimumab, the HIDRAdisk scores showed significantly better improvement in males compared to females ( p < 0.001) [ 47 ].…”

Patient experiences with hidradenitis suppurativa: the Hidradenitis Patient Experience survey

“…Third, survey respondents may not be reflective of all patients with HS. Fourth, our results may be limited by pooling females and males into one category for data analysis, as differences between sexes in disease characteristics and treatment outcomes have been reported 20–22 . Fifth, ethnicity was not reported in our data, potentially limiting our results, as differences in race‐specific prevalence of HS, access to healthcare resources and socioeconomic status exist 23 .…”

Disfiguring Hidradenitis Suppurativa of the Face

“…The lack of efficacy of isotretinoin therapy, typically ineffective in patients suffering from HS and especially in severe forms, represents further proof of HSs causative role in scarring [6]. Due to the chronic relapsing inflammatory course of HS, there is a significant impairment of patients’ QoL, greater than any other dermatologic condition [7]. Localization on the face has an enormous impact on HS patients’ social life and emotional aspect.…”