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294363

Thymus gland assessment in infants and children with atopic dermatitis

Article

Last updated: 24 Dec 2024

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Subjects

-

Tags

Allergy
Pediatrics

Abstract

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is one of the most common inflammatory skin conditions and is characterized by a significant activation of T cells in lesional and even non-lesional skin.  The thymus is a key organ concerned with T cell immune response in early life. We sought to investigate the thymic size in infants and young children with atopic dermatitis and its relation to disease severity. Methods: We conducted a controlled cross-sectional study on a group of 50 preschool children aged 4 years or less with physician-diagnosed AD in comparison to 50 healthy matched children. They underwent thymic index assessment by ultrasonography and complete blood counting with manual differential. Results: Thymic indices of our patients ranged between 0.52 and 34.7 cm3 with a median (IQR) value of 2.7 (2.0 to 9.8) cm3. The relevant values of the control group did not vary statistically (p=0.014) from those of the patients [6.50 (2.40 to 10.80) cm3]. After adjustment for age, sex, and weight percentile, there was no statistically significant relation between the thymic index and AD (odds ratio = 1.017, 95% CI = 0.988 to 1.047, p= 0.254). The thymic indices of patients correlated positively and significantly with their oSCORAD indices (p=0.001), and the latter correlated positively with the absolute lymphocyte counts (p= 0.002). Boys had a higher frequency of response to the treatment of AD as compared to girls (p=0.005). The poor response to treatment was associated with younger age at onset (p=0.003) and high oSCORAD index (p=0.001).  Conclusion: Thymic indices were comparable between AD patients and healthy controls, but the thymic size was positively correlated to disease severity. The positive correlation of oSCORAD to thymic size and lymphocyte count reflects the underlying immune dysregulation in AD. Our findings are limited by the sample size and the cross-sectional study design.

DOI

10.21608/ejpa.2023.294363

Keywords

atopic dermatitis, SCORAD, thymus, children

Authors

First Name

Elham

Last Name

Hossny

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Pediatric Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology Unit, Children's Hospital, Ain-Shams University, Egypt.

Email

elham.hossny@gmail.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Hossam

Last Name

Sakr

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Rasha

Last Name

El-Owaidy

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Pediatric Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology Unit, Children's Hospital, Ain-Shams University, Egypt.

Email

rasha2hasan@gmail.com

City

-

Orcid

0000-0002-5609-4160

First Name

Amr

Last Name

El-Mekkawy

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Pediatric Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology Unit, Children's Hospital, Ain-Shams University, Egypt.

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Sara

Last Name

Ebrahim

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Pediatric Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology Unit, Children's Hospital, Ain-Shams University, Egypt.

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

21

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

40729

Issue Date

2023-04-01

Receive Date

2023-04-07

Publish Date

2023-04-01

Page Start

9

Page End

17

Print ISSN

1687-1642

Online ISSN

2314-8934

Article File

EJPA_Volume 21_Issue 1_Pages 9-17.pdf

PDF . 491.2kB

Link

https://ejpai.journals.ekb.eg/article_294363.html

Detail API

https://ejpai.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=294363

Order

294,363

Type

Original Article

Type Code

643

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

The Egyptian Journal of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology

Publication Link

https://ejpai.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Thymus gland assessment in infants and children with atopic dermatitis

Details

Type

Article

Created At

24 Dec 2024