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Background: It is believed that vitiligo has an impact on the overall patient quality of life (QoL)., Objective: To estimate QoL in a fairly large sample of Italian vitiligo patients by using the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) questionnaire., Methods: One hundred and sixty-one vitiligo patients referred to 9 dermatological centers were offered to participate by filling in the Italian version of the DLQI questionnaire., Results: The mean total DLQI score was 4.3 (SD ±4.9; range: 0-22). In multivariate analysis, DLQI >5 was associated with female gender, stability of the disease over time and involvement of the face at disease onset., Conclusions: The impairment of QoL is overall limited in Italian vitiligo patients, especially if it is compared with results from other available studies. This could be due to cultural and ethnic characteristics of the sample.

Background: Autoimmune comorbidities and circulating autoantibodies have been observed in vitiligo patients, but differences in rate are present according to countries in which the studies were performed, perhaps owing to ethnic diversities or different trigger factors., Objective: To estimate the prevalence of circulating autoantibodies and overt autoimmune diseases in a fairly large sample of Italian vitiligo patients., Methods: 175 outpatients affected by vitiligo and referred to nine dermatological centers were included in the study. Patients were offered routine blood test, serological testing for thyroid function and search for autoantibodies., Results: At least one circulating autoantibody was detected in 61 (41.8%) of 146 subjects who underwent laboratory tests. Anti-thyroperoxidase (25.6%), anti-thyroglobulin (23.4%), antinuclear antibodies (16.8%) and anti-gastric parietal cell antibodies (7.8%) were the most noticed autoantibodies. 74 (41.5%) autoimmune comorbidities, mainly autoimmune thyroiditis (37%), were reported., Conclusion: The prevalence of autoimmune comorbidities and circulating autoantibodies in this study was in agreement with other surveys conducted on Caucasian patients., (© 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel.)

Background/aims: To evaluate the association of psoriasis with selected medical conditions and a number of drugs used before diagnosis., Methods: Multicenter case-control study involving outpatient services of 20 general and teaching hospitals. Entry criteria for cases were a first diagnosis of psoriasis made by a dermatologist and a history of skin manifestations of no more than 2 years after the reported onset of the disease. Controls were the first eligible dermatological patients observed on randomly selected days in the same centers as cases. A total of 560 cases and 690 controls were recruited., Results: The odds ratio (OR) of psoriasis was 0.8 (95% confidence interval, CI, 0.5-1.3) in hypertensive subjects, 1.1 (95% CI 0.6-2.0) in diabetics and 1.1 (95% CI 0.7-1.7) in hyperlipidemic subjects. Histamine 2 receptor antagonist exposure was negatively associated with psoriasis: OR 0.3 (95% CI 0.1-0.8)., Conclusion: Our study rules out a strong association of psoriasis at its first ever diagnosis with common chronic conditions. The reported associations of psoriasis with relatively common conditions such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension and hyperlipidemia may represent a late effect of well-known risk factors for psoriasis such as smoking and overweight or reflect factors related to the long course of psoriasis itself., ((c) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel.)