ACTA FAC MED NAISS 2008; 25 (3): 121-125

Original article

ESTIMATE OF THERAPEUTIC EFFECT OF DITRANOL BY APPLYING HIGH FREQUENCY ULTRASOUND IN PSORIASIS PATIENTS

Tatjana Stojkovic¹
Ivan Stojkovic²
 

¹Military Medical Center, Nis
²Military Hospital, Nis 

SUMMARY

High frequency 20-MHz ultrasonography is accessory, noninvasive diagnostic method that visualises acoustic tomograms of pathological changes of the soft tissue. With the techique available today, ultrasound can not be considered an alternative for pathohistological finding that still remains a ''gold standard'' when diagnostics is in question. However, ultrasound has certain advantages which are primarily related to the examination being noninvasive, the results being obtained directly, and to the possibility of observing a large area of the skin, with a good presentation of microanatomical structures.
In the controlled, clinical, prospective study, the modification of ultrasonographic skin parameters during the treatment with a topical antipsoriatic, ditranol, was noted. The examination included 30 patients with clinically verified psoriasis vulgaris diagnosis, to whom 1% ditranol was applied on the psoriatic changes, in the duration of 21 days. The changes were measured before and every 7 days since the beginning of the therapy. By the combined application of A- and B- mode echosonography, the width of the enter echo, the width of hypo-echogenic strip shadow under the enter echo and the thickness of the dermis, were measured. The obtained results were parameters for the estimate of the therapeutic efficacy of ditranol. The evaluation of the ultrasonographic characteristics revealed a significant reduction of values in the course of the therapy. The ultrasound examination of the skin offers enough qualitative and quantitative data that can be numerically expressed and used for a more objective estimate of the applied treatment procedure efficacy.

Key words: psoriasis, 20-MHz ultrasound, ditranol