Effective treatment strategies are available for cutaneous autoimmune disease, according to Dr. Anthony Fernandez, director of medical and inpatient dermatology at the Cleveland Clinic. Next Steps in Derm, in partnership with ODAC Dermatology, Aesthetic & Surgical Conference, interviewed Dr. Fernandez, who explains how the severity of the disease impacts the most appropriate treatment option. Learn when to use topicals and when to move on to more systemic treatments. Hear which treatments to consider for moderate-to-severe lupus and dermatomyositis. Plus find out which treatment is most effective for dermatomyositis and should be reserved for refractory disease.
Further Reading
If you want to read more about cutaneous autoimmune disease, check out the following articles published in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology:
A Retrospective Review of Tofacitinib in the Treatment of Refractory Dermatomyositis
ABSTRACT
Dermatomyositis (DM) is an autoimmune myopathy with characteristic dermatologic features. Tofacitinib is an immunomodulator with proven efficacy against numerous immune-mediated disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and psoriasis. Several reports have demonstrated oral tofacitinib’s ability to treat the cutaneous and extracutaneous manifestations of refractory dermatomyositis (DM). However, evidence for sustained improvement remains limited. The goal of this study is to investigate the long-term response of recalcitrant DM to oral and topical tofacitinib at varied dosing regimens.
Characterization and Clinical Significance of Non-Scarring Alopecia in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
ABSTRACT
Non-scarring alopecia is now part of the Lupus International Collaborating Clinics classification criteria 2012 (SLICC’12). We set out to better characterize the timing and distribution of lupusrelated alopecia to identify if specific features could be identified that would help providers in the diagnosis.
We performed a retrospective chart review of patients seen in our combined rheumatology-dermatology clinic from Nov 2012 to Dec 2017. This dataset is ideal for this study as all patients had their diagnosis of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus confirmed by a board-certified rheumatologist and the status of their hair evaluated by a board-certified dermatologist.
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