Study of Serum Calprotectin Level in Patients with Acne Vulgaris and its Correlation to Disease Severity

Abstract

Acne vulgaris is a common skin condition that affects people all over the world. Acne vulgaris is characterised by the presence of open and closed comedones, papules, pustules, and nodules on areas of the body with hormonally sensitive sebaceous glands. Acne is thought to be caused by four key factors: increased sebum production, follicular hyperkeratinization, skin bacterial colonisation, and inflammation. Acne with severe symptoms is painful, disfiguring, scarring, and lowering self-esteem. The aim of this study was to determine the serum level of calprotectin in acne vulgaris patients and its relationship to disease severity. Subjects and Methods: In this sample, 60 people with acne vulgaris were paired with 30 people who appeared to be of similar sex and age as a control group. The patients were chosen from those who attended the Benha University Hospital's Dermatology and Andrology Department's Outpatient Clinic between April 2019 and October 2020. Our findings indicated that the AV group had a statistically significant higher level of serum calprotectin with mean SD (6.291.91ng/dl) than the control group with mean SD (2.040.65ng/dl) (p=0.004). The amount of serum calprotectin had a statistically significant positive relationship with the GAGS score (r=0.854; p0.001). The period of the disease, however, had no meaningful correlation (r=0.163;p=0.212). Conclusion: Serum calprotectin levels are higher in acne vulgaris patients relative to safe controls, and there is a statistically significant relationship between calprotectin levels and disease severity, suggesting that calprotectin may be used as a chemical biomarker to determine disease severity.

Acne Vulgaris Severity Correlation with Serum Calprotectin: A Prospective Case-Controlled Study

“…Abd Allah et al (19) findings, on the other hand, revealed no important connection between calprotectin serum levels and the length of AV in their patients. This contrasted with the findings of Fouda et al (21) , who discovered a strong positive association between serum calprotectin levels and acne duration(r =0.247; P =0.057).…”

“…This was in line with Fouda et al (21) who reported similar results. Similarly, the amount of serum calprotectin was found to have a strongly important positive association with GAGS score (r=0.854; P <0.001) in Abd Allah et al (19) study. In a study conducted by Korkmaz and Fçcolu (1) , it was shown that the serum calprotectin levels of people with moderate-severe AV were statistically substantially greater than those of people with mild AV (P <0.001).…”

“…In the same line, Abd Allah et al (19) , Basha et al (20) , Fouda et al (21) and Farag et al (22) serum calprotectin levels were shown to be considerably higher in patients with acne vulgaris compared to healthy controls, indicating that calprotectin may be a valuable measure in evaluating the severity of acne vulgaris.…”

“…These data showed that serum calprotectin concentration can be a discriminator for the diagnosis of AV and detection of disease severity with high specificity and sensitivity of the test. Likewise, calprotectin can act as an accurate predictor of acne intensity, according to Abd Allah et al (19) results, and may aid in the care and follow-up of patients with acne vulgaris.…”