Evaluation of the Efficacy of Acitretin Therapy for Nail Psoriasis

Summary

Objective: Efficacy of systemic retinoid therapy of nail psoriasis has never been assessed objectively. Evaluate therapeutic efficacy of acitretin in patients with isolated nail psoriasis. Design: Open-study on thirty-six patients with moderate to severe nail psoriasis treated with acitretin. Participants: Patients included 27 men and 9 women (mean age 41) with nail psoriasis. Intervention: Therapy consisted of acitretin 0.2 to 0.3 mg/Kg/day for 6 months. Main Outcome Measure(s): Clinical evaluation, NAPSI and modified NAPSI scores before therapy, every 2 months during therapy and 6 months after treatment.

Timeline

Start

2005-01

Primary completion

2007-01

Completion

2008-07

Publications

• Background Rich P, Griffiths CE, Reich K, Nestle FO, Scher RK, Li S, Xu S, Hsu MC, Guzzo C. Baseline nail disease in patients with moderate to severe psoriasis and response to treatment with infliximab during 1 year. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2008 Feb;58(2):224-31. doi: 10.1016/j.jaad.2007.07.042. Epub 2007 Dec 20.
• Background Rich P, Scher RK. Nail Psoriasis Severity Index: a useful tool for evaluation of nail psoriasis. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2003 Aug;49(2):206-12. doi: 10.1067/s0190-9622(03)00910-1.
• Background Brazzelli V, Martinoli S, Prestinari F, Borroni G. An impressive therapeutic result of nail psoriasis to acitretin. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2004 Mar;18(2):229-30. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-3083.2004.00667.x. No abstract available.
• Background Cassell SE, Bieber JD, Rich P, Tutuncu ZN, Lee SJ, Kalunian KC, Wu CW, Kavanaugh A. The modified Nail Psoriasis Severity Index: validation of an instrument to assess psoriatic nail involvement in patients with psoriatic arthritis. J Rheumatol. 2007 Jan;34(1):123-9.

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Indications