Baseline characteristics, disease severity and treatment history of Patients with Atopic Dermatitis included in the German AD Registry TREATgermany

BACKGROUND: The Atopic Dermatitis TREATgermany registry was initiated by the German Society for Dermatology (DDG) in 2011 to evaluate the "real-life" situation of health care for patients with AD. OBJECTIVES: Interim data analysis on baseline characteristics as well as current and prescribed systemic treatments of the TREATgermany registry patients. METHODS: Patients (≥18 years) with moderate to severe AD [objective (o)SCORAD>20], or with current or previous anti-inflammatory systemic treatment for AD within 24 months, were included and followed up over at least 24 months. To assess clinical signs, the eczema area severity index [EASI 0-72], the oSCORAD [0-83] and the Investigator Global Assessment (IGA; 6-point scale) were used. The disease severity was globally scored by the patients [Patient Global Assessment (PGA); six-step Likert scale]. Disease symptoms were assessed by the patient-oriented eczema measure (POEM, 0-28) and numeric rating scales (NRS 0-10). Health-related quality of life was measured using the dermatological life quality index (DLQI, 0-30). RESULTS: 612 patients were recruited across 32 sites between 06/2016 and 01/2019 (mean age 42.6±14.2 years; mean oSCORAD 40.8±16.3). The mean POEM score was 16.3±7.5. Pruritus was rated highest among subjective symptoms (NRS 5.4±2.7). The mean DLQI value was 11.3±7.5. The frequency of arterial hypertension was lower (20.8%) compared to the general population whilst this was higher for depression (10%). More than 60% of the patients had received systemic glucocorticosteroids and 36.8% had received cyclosporine A prior to inclusion. Dupilumab was the leading substance documented as either "current" (12.1%) or "prescribed" (31.4%) at baseline. CONCLUSIONS: These "real life" data clearly demonstrate the substantial disease-burden. Most of TREATgermany patients were already treated with or prescribed dupilumab at baseline. Moreover, current findings indicate the urgent need for further alternative agents in order to achieve a perceptible improvement of quality of life of patients with moderate to severe AD.