Faculty Bibliography

During 2016-2022, Medicare part D beneficiaries filled 8,674,460 clotrimazole-betamethasone dipropionate prescriptions. Annual rates were stable (30.9 prescriptions/1,000 beneficiary-years in 2022, enough for one in every 33 beneficiaries). Diagnostic testing was infrequent, particularly among internal medicine, family medicine, and general practitioners, suggesting potential opportunities to improve diagnostic and prescribing practices.

BACKGROUND:Necrobiosis lipoidica (NL) is a rare, idiopathic, and recalcitrant disease of collagen degeneration for which treatment options have been poorly studied. Due to its recurring nature, risk for ulceration, and high morbidity, there is a need to understand existing treatment modalities to better inform clinical care. OBJECTIVE:This review aims to describe the therapeutic modalities reported in the literature for the treatment of NL. METHODS:A literature search of treatments was performed by searching for publications between January 2016 and May 2022 on PubMed and Scopus. Given the limited high-quality evidence, case reports and series were included. Only publications presenting information on both attempted treatments and outcomes were included. RESULTS:A total of 60 novel articles were identified (54 case reports, two case series, and four retrospective cohort studies). These studies cumulatively reported on 274 patients and covered treatments including phototherapy, topical corticosteroids, topical calcineurin inhibitors, biologics, immunosuppressants, JAK inhibitors, combination therapies, and several others. The greatest amount of evidence was found for photodynamic therapy (improvement in 72 of 80 patients), UVA-based phototherapy (12 of 33), topical corticosteroids (21 of 46), compression therapy (15 of 20), and topical calcineurin inhibitors (11 of 17). Several newer treatments were also described, including ustekinumab and JAK inhibitors. CONCLUSIONS:This systematic review provides a comprehensive summary of recently published treatments for NL. As the existing data comes predominantly from case reports and series, statistical conclusions are not assessed. A greater number of randomized controlled trials with standardized endpoints are necessary to compare treatment efficacy.

Sarcoidosis is a chronic, multisystem, inflammatory disorder that is characterized by noncaseating granulomas that cause organ dysfunction with various clinical subphenotypes. The incidence and prevalence of sarcoidosis varies greatly by ethnic background. There are significant racial disparities in prevalence, severity, and outcomes; however, there is a dearth of studies investigating the impact of structural racism. The skin is often the presenting and second most frequently involved organ with significant implications on diagnosis and management in patients with darkly pigmented skin. Workup should be comprehensive given the multisystem involvement. There are many therapies for sarcoidosis, although none is universally effective.

Purpose of Review: Dermatomyositis can present with a range of manifestations and severity that may necessitate hospital admission. Dermatologists are frequently consulted for patients with dermatomyositis inpatient. Herein we describe clinical features and management of multisystem complications of dermatomyositis with a focus on the inpatient setting. Recent Findings: Patients with dermatomyositis are at risk for hospitalization due to disease flares, infections, and systemic complications. Furthermore, patients may seek care for symptoms including shortness of breath, fever, or cutaneous eruptions which can lead to a new diagnosis of dermatomyositis. Patients with dermatomyositis have increased healthcare utilization and necessitate multidisciplinary and collaborative care. Cutaneous findings may be subtle yet provide important prognostic information. Symptoms arising from skin disease may also be chronic and refractory. Summary: Dermatologists are essential in both diagnosing and managing dermatomyositis and must be attuned to the multiple systemic manifestations and complications that impact inpatient care.

Pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) is a rare, and often challenging to diagnose, inflammatory disorder with relatively high rates of morbidity and mortality. Central to the diagnosis of PG is histologic evaluation and exclusion of other entities. Large-scale studies investigating the proportion of patients receiving a thorough diagnostic work-up, as well as prevalence studies regarding comorbidities and systemic treatment in PG using claims-based data, are sparse. Our objective was to identify patients diagnosed with PG and describe the diagnostic work-up and prevalence of common comorbidities and therapies in this population using claims-based data in a retrospective cohort study. In order to better understand practices of diagnostic work-up, we captured rates of skin biopsy, tissue culture, and/or surgical debridement prior to initial diagnosis. We also identified the prevalence of PG-associated comorbidities and initial immunosuppressive therapy given for PG. Of the 565 patients diagnosed with PG, 9.4% underwent skin biopsy, 8% tissue culture, and 1.4% both skin biopsy AND tissue culture prior to diagnosis. Inflammatory bowel disease was the most prevalent comorbidity (16.3%). The most common treatment administered was systemic corticosteroids (17%). Although practice guidelines explicitly delineate histology and exclusion of infection as important diagnostic criteria, only a minority of patients in this study underwent skin biopsy and/or tissue culture prior to receiving a diagnosis of PG, suggesting that patients may receive a diagnosis of PG without having tissue evaluation. Such discordance between practice guidelines and "real-world" practice inevitably increases the risk for misdiagnosis of PG and misdirected treatment with immunosuppressants for presumptive PG in cases of PG mimickers. Moreover, comorbidities associated with PG may occur, or be identified in, a lower proportion of patients as compared with what is reported in the existing literature. Study limitations include a population restricted to < 65 years with commercial insurance and the reliance upon ICD diagnostic coding to capture the population.

Dermatomyositis (DM) is an autoimmune connective tissue disease that most commonly affects skin and muscles. Clinical manifestations can be protean, with some patients experiencing skin-limited disease while others develop serious systemic complications including interstitial lung disease (ILD). While both T cell-mediated and humoral immune dysregulation have been purported to play a role in manifesting said end-organ damage, our understanding of immunophenotypic prognostic factors associated with the development of ILD in DM patients remains limited. Thus, we sought to identify potential biomarkers that might be differentially expressed in lesional skin obtained from DM patients with versus without ILD. Utilizing NanoString technology, we assessed differential mRNA expression of 800 immune-related genes in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded lesional skin samples obtained from five DM patients with ILD compared to five DM patients without ILD. Among 42 highly regulated genes, 10 were significantly (p<0.05) upregulated in DM patients with ILD: CD44, NFKBIZ, CD24, EGR1, DEFB103B, CCL18, CCL22, CXCL2, S100A8 and S100A9. Notably, serum levels of S100A8/A9 heterodimer (an endogenous ligand of Toll-like receptor 4) are known to correlate with clinical severity in patients with DM-associated ILD, thereby supporting NanoString's utility in identifying salient genes associated with end-organ damage in DM. We also identified several novel genes downregulated in patients with DM-associated ILD that play a role in autophagy and adaptive immune activation: CLEC7, LEF1, KLRC2, BTLA, MUC1, and TCF7. Taken together, our results begin to characterize an immune-related gene expression signature in lesional DM skin that may be associated with comorbid ILD. While validation experiments are ongoing, the identification of biomarkers of systemic disease in lesional DM skin not only has the potential for risk stratifying DM patients at the time of tissue diagnosis but may provide novel targets for early intervention against DM-associated ILD.
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