Childhood psoriasis: a survey among pediatricians in Italy.

BACKGROUND

Psoriasis is one of the most common inflammatory skin diseases. There seem to be an increasing interest in childhood psoriasis in recent years.

METHODS

We conducted a survey among pediatricians in Italy. 50 pediatricians from different areas in Italy (north, center and south) were invited to participate, 37 were responding and active in data collection. Doctors were asked to review their databases and to fill a form providing a series of information about all patients diagnosed with psoriasis attending their ambulatory.

RESULTS

The total number of patients referring to the responding doctors was 28086. Of these, 66 were diagnosed with psoriasis. Mean age was 5.7, (6.3 in males and 5.1 in females). The majority of patients presented plaque psoriasis (N.=44; 66.7%), followed by inverse (N.=9; 13.6%), and guttate psoriasis (N.=7; 10.6%). The main site of presentation was the trunk (51.5%), followed by scalp (15.2%) and napkin area (12.1%). Fifteen patients presented nail psoriasis (22.7%). In the majority of cases no family history was reported (83.3%), first degree relatives presented psoriatic lesions in only 7 cases (10.6%). The comorbidity most frequently reported was overweight (N.=16, 25.4%), followed by atopic dermatitis (N.=12; 18.2%). Differences in the main pattern of presentation were found between male and female patients, in particular, a plaque type psoriasis was more frequent in males (79.4% vs. 53.1%; P=0.048). Female patients presented psoriasis of the napkin area more frequently than males (21.9% vs. 2.9%, P=0.025).

CONCLUSIONS

Peculiar pattern of presentation can be detected in childhood psoriasis. Further studies are needed to validate these findings.