Casuistic Revision of Childhood Atopic Dermatitis during Last Three Years in Braga's Hospital

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is an inflammatory disease, occurring in association with personal or family history of atopy. Methods: A retrospective study of AD patients, admitted in the consultation of Pediatric Dermatology of our hospital, between the years 2011 and 2013, was carried out. For the purposes of this study, a modified and simplified procedure was adopted for recording severity of AD in our patients, named three-item severity score (TIS score), using three items of Scoring of Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) index (erythema, edema and excoriations). Results: There were 160 patients, with age ranging from 1 month to 15 years and with an equal sex ratio. The prevalence of AD was 17.1%. The most frequent symptom was pruritus (86.9%). Eighty-six percent of patients initiated symptoms before 5 years. The severity of AD was mild/moderate in 139 patients (86.9%) and severe in 21 patients (13.1%). The family and/ or personal history of atopy were positive in 134 patients (84%). Common aggravating factors included wintertime (46.9%) and allergens (16.3%), being the most frequent aeroallergens. Serum IgE was elevated in 17 patients (33.3%). Most patients could be controlled with topical measures (86.3%). Discussion: The pattern of AD in our Department is similar to other studies, except for a higher prevalence of mild AD, a lower elevation of serum IgE and comparing with countries with tropical weather we have an additional aggravating factor: the lower temperatures during winter, which disturbed barrier function of the stratum corneum.