Evaluation of skin barrier function in patients with facial acne, eczema, melasma and solar dermatitis and its clinical significance / 中华皮肤科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To compare skin barrier function among patients with facial acne,subacute eczema,melasma and solar dermatitis.Methods Three hundred patients,including 80 patients with facial acne,60 subacute facial eczema,80 facial melasma and 60 facial solar dermatitis,as well as 60 healthy controls were recruited in this study.Skin sebum content and transepidermal water loss (TEWL) were measured by a sebmeter and Tewameter TM 210 (Courage and Khazaka,Germany),respectively.Stratum comeum hydration was measured with a Scalar Moisture Checker (Scalar Corporation,Japan).Statistical analysis was carried out using analysis of variance and t test.Results Compared with the healthy controls,patients with facial acne showed increased skin sebum content and TEWL value but decreased stratum corneum hydration (all P ＜ 0.01),and patients with subacute eczema,solar dermatitis and melasma displayed lower sebum content and stratum corneum hydration but higher TEWL value (all P ＜ 0.01).Skin sebum content was significantly higher in patients with facial acne than in patients with subacute eczema,solar dermatitis and melasma ((184.65 ± 83.07) vs.(21.86 ± 18.94),(25.10 ±14.22) and (36.05 ± 32.84) μg/cm2,all P ＜ 0.01),but was similar between the patients with subacute eczema,solar dermatitis and melasma (P ＞ 0.05).In terms of stratum corneum hydration,patients with subacute eczema and solar dermatitis were statistically lower than those with acne and melasma (18.66％ ± 7.85％ and 20.91％ ± 8.05％ vs.24.32％ ± 8.16％ and 28.02％ ± 4.67％,all P ＜ 0.01),patients with facial subacute eczema were similar to those with solar dermatitis (P ＞ 0.05),and patients with facial acne were statistically lower than those with melasma (P ＜0.01).TEWL value was significantly higher in patients with melasma than in patients with acne,solar dermatitis and subacute eczema ((13.80 ± 4.t 3) vs.(20.86 ± 8.78),(22.85 ± 9.84) and (22.48 ± 10.37) μg/m2 h,all P ＜ 0.01),but similar between patients with acne,solar dermatitis and subacute eczema (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions Skin barrier function is somewhat impaired in patients with facial acne,subacute eczema,melasma and solar dermatitis.Therefore,to recover skin barrier function may facilitate the treatment of these diseases.