ABSTRACT
Design: a prospective study to determine the level of IgE and SCORAD in children with AD
Setting: dermatology clinic Hamad General Hospital. Patients: A total of 140 patients with AD were re- cruited [84 male and 56 female]
Methods: patients were assigned an AD symptom score [SCORAD] and were screened for levels of serum IgE. The patients were subdivided by age into four groups: Group 1 [n=26] less than one year, Group 2 [n=43] preschool children less than four years, Group 3 [n=54] from four to seven years, Group 4 [n=17] more than seven up to twelve years
Results: the SCORAD showed proportional increase with age among different groups the highest SCORAD was noticed in Group 4, IgE level was positive in only 42.1 % of the cases. The IgE level showed a significant positive correlation with SCORAD in Groups 1 and 4
Conclusions: clinical severity of atopic dermatitis increase with age especially in the older children as the mild and moderate cases tend to resolve, IgE level is correlated with the clinical severity only in infants and children beyond the age of seven years