Bullous pemphigoid disease activity index (BPDAI) is the standard indicator of disease activity in bullous pemphigoid (BP). However, examining patients’ whole body is burdensome to both the patient and health care workers and is subjected to inter-examiner bias, hence the need to investigate other surrogate markers for BPDAI. The purpose of the study is to quantify and correlate candidate surrogate disease markers of BP namely visual analogue scale for pruritus (VAS-pruritus), thymus and activation-regulated chemokines (TARC), and anti-BP180 to bullous pemphigoid disease activity index (BPDAI). A total of 29 BP cases were examined; clinical disease marker (BPDAI), conventional disease biomarkers (anti-BP180, TARC score) and patient reported VAS-pruritus were measured and correlated throughout the clinical course of disease. We calculated a statistical cross-correlation function (CCF) between two time-series variables between BPDAI to VAS-pruritus, TARC, and anti-BP180. CCF ranges from -1 to 1, indicating that a CCF of 1 means perfect positive and -1 means negative correlation. The CCF between the change in BPDAI to anti-BP180, TARC, and VAS-pruritus were 0.928, 0.972, and 0.923 respectively, indicating that changes in the BPDAI were highly correlated with the aforementioned markers. We therefore conclude that antiBP-180, TARC, VAS-pruritus may be used as surrogate disease markers to BPDAI to monitor bullous pemphigoid disease activity.

ESDR123 - Anti-BP180, Pruritus, and Thymus and Activation-Regulated Chemokines as Surrogate Markers for Disease Activity in Bullous Pemphigoid

The scientific meeting of the European Society for Dermatological Research (ESDR) is held yearly, usually in September. With an international attendance of more than 1000 skin scientists from around the globe, the four-day event includes short oral presentations from peer-reviewed abstracts, keynote lectures from international experts, sponsored symposia, satellite programs, educational events as well as an important focus on posters, networking and building collaborations amongst scientists. For more information about this year’s meeting visit our website.