Introduction: Treat-to-target strategies are used in several chronic diseases to improve outcomes. Treatment goals have also been suggested for psoriasis, but there is currently no consensus on targets, and guidance is needed to implement this strategy in clinical practice. The project 'Treat to Target Italia' was launched by a scientific board (SB) of 10 psoriasis experts to generate expert consensus recommendations.

Background Few and small studies have described the management of immunomodulant/immunosuppressive therapies or phototherapy in atopic dermatitis (AD) patients during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic. Methods A national registry, named DA‐COVID‐19 and involving 35 Italian dermatology units, was established in order to evaluate the impact of COVID‐19 pandemic on the management of adult AD patients treated with systemic immunomodulant/immunosuppressive medications or phototherapy. Demographic and clinical data were obtained at different timepoints by teledermatology during COVID‐19 pandemic, when regular visits were not allowed due to sanitary restrictions. Disease severity was assessed by both physician‐ and patient‐reported assessment scores evaluating itch intensity, sleep disturbances, and AD severity. Results A total of 1831 patients were included, with 1580/1831 (86.3%) continuing therapy during pandemic. Most patients were treated with dupilumab (86.1%, 1576/1831) that was interrupted in only 9.9% (156/1576) of cases, while systemic immunosuppressive compounds were more frequently withdrawn. Treatment interruption was due to decision of the patient, general practitioner, or dermatologist in 39.9% (114/286), 5.6% (16/286), and 30.1% (86/286) of cases, respectively. Fear of increased susceptibility to SARS‐CoV‐2 infection (24.8%, 71/286) was one of the main causes of interruption. Sixteen patients (0.9%) resulted positive to SARS‐CoV‐2 infection; 3 of them (0.2%) were hospitalized but no cases of COVID‐related death occurred. Conclusions Most AD patients continued systemic treatments during COVID pandemic and lockdown period, without high impact on disease control, particularly dupilumab‐treated patients.

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New biologic agents targeting interleukin (IL)23/T‐helper17 axis, such as tildrakizumab, have been developed for the treatment of plaque psoriasis. To analyze the efficacy and safety of tildrakizumab in a real life setting of patients affected by moderate‐to‐severe psoriasis over a 28‐week treatment period. A multicentric retrospective study was conducted in patients who initiated tildrakizumab between February 2020 and March 2021. Psoriasis Area and Severity Index—PASI was measured at baseline and after 4, 16 and 28 weeks. The percentage change in PASI value from baseline to the considered time‐points, proportion of patients with absolute PASI <3 at week 28 and the percentages of achieving a PASI75 or PASI90 response were assessed. Data about potential safety issues and adverse events (AEs) were collected. Statistical analysis were performed for establish clinical efficacy and for variables predicting clinical response. Fifty nine patients with psoriasis were included. Overall mean PASI percentage reduction was of 88% from baseline to week 28 and 47 out of 59 patients (79.7%) at week 28 had an absolute PASI <3. PASI75 and PASI90 responses at week 28 were achieved by 48 (81.40%) patients and 38 (64.4.0%) patients, respectively. No substantial associations between gender, body mass index ‐ BMI, PASI at baseline and prior exposition to biological therapies and the efficacy endpoints were retrieved. No serious safety issues or discontinuations related to adverse events were reported. In our real‐life study, tildrakizumab showed high efficacy and a favorable safety profile, regardless of patient‐ and disease‐related factors.

Adult atopic dermatitis (adult AD) is a systemic inflammatory disorder, whose relationship with immune-allergic and metabolic comorbidities is not well established yet. Moreover, treatment of mild-to-moderate and severe atopic dermatitis needs standardization among clinicians. The aim of this study was to evaluate the distribution of comorbidities, including metabolic abnormalities, rhinitis, conjunctivitis, asthma, alopecia and sleep disturbance, according to severity of adult AD, and describe treatments most commonly used by Italian dermatologists. Retrospective, observational, nationwide study of adult patients over a 2-year period was performed. Clinical and laboratory data were obtained through review of medical records of patients aged ≥ 18 years, followed in 23 Italian National reference centres for atopic dermatitis between September 2016 and September 2018. The main measurements evaluated were disease severity, atopic and metabolic comorbidities, treatment type and duration. Six-hundred and eighty-four adult patients with AD were included into the study. Atopic, but not metabolic conditions, except for hypertension, were significantly associated with having moderate-to-severe AD in young adult patients. Disease duration was significantly associated with disease severity. Oral corticosteroids and cyclosporine were the most widely used immunosuppressant. Our study seems confirm the close relationship between adult AD and other atopic conditions, further long-term cohort studies on patients affected by adult AD need to be performed to evaluate the complex relationship between adult AD disease severity and metabolic comorbidities.

Background Psoriasis is a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory skin disease which can also involve joints. It is often associated with burdensome comorbidities which negatively impact prognosis and quality of life (QoL). Biologic agents have been shown to be effective in controlling disease progression, but their use is associated with higher costs compared with traditional systemic treatments. The economic analysis of the CANOVA (EffeCtiveness of biologic treAtmeNts for plaque psOriasis in Italy: an obserVAtional longitudinal study of real-life clinical practice) study aims to assess the costs and cost-effectiveness of biologics in a real-world context in Italy. Methods The annualised overall direct costs of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis management, the annualised cost of biologic drugs and the cost per responder in the Italian National Health System perspective were assessed. More specifically, the cost per response and cost per sustained response of the most prescribed biologic therapies for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis within the CANOVA study were assessed using the Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) at several score levels (75, 90 and 100%). Results The most frequently used biologic therapies for plaque psoriasis were secukinumab, ustekinumab, adalimumab originator, and ixekizumab. Cost of biologics was the driver of expenditure, accounting for about 98% of total costs. Adalimumab originator was the biologic with the lowest cost per responder ratio (range: €7848 - €31,378), followed by secukinumab (range: €9015 - €33,419). Ustekinumab (range: €11,689 – €39,280) and ixekizumab (range: €11,092 – €34,289) ranked respectively third and fourth, in terms of cost-effectiveness ratio. As concerns the cost per sustained response analysis, secukinumab showed the lowest value observed (€21,375) over the other options, because of its high response rate (86% vs. 60–80%), which was achieved early in time. Conclusion Biologic therapy is a valuable asset for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. Concomitant assessment of treatment costs against the expected therapeutic response over time can provide physicians and payers additional insights which can complement the traditional risk-benefit profile assessment and drive treatment decisions.

Background: Few and small studies have described the management of immunomodulant/immunosuppressive therapies or phototherapy in atopic dermatitis (AD) patients during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods: A national registry, named DA-COVID-19 and involving 35 Italian dermatology units, was established in order to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the management of adult AD patients treated with systemic immunomodulant/immunosuppressive medications or phototherapy. Demographic and clinical data were obtained at different timepoints by teledermatology during COVID-19 pandemic, when regular visits were not allowed due to sanitary restrictions. Disease severity was assessed by both physician- and patient-reported assessment scores evaluating itch intensity, sleep disturbances, and AD severity. Results: A total of 1831 patients were included, with 1580/1831 (86.3%) continuing therapy during pandemic. Most patients were treated with dupilumab (86.1%, 1576/1831) that was interrupted in only 9.9% (156/1576) of cases, while systemic immunosuppressive compounds were more frequently withdrawn. Treatment interruption was due to decision of the patient, general practitioner or dermatologist in 39.9% (114/286), 5.6% (16/286), and 30.1% (86/286) of cases, respectively. Fear of increased susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection (24.8%, 71/286) was one of the main causes of interruption. Sixteen patients (0.9%) resulted positive to SARS-CoV-2 infection, 3 of them (0.2%) were hospitalized but no cases of COVID-related death occurred. Conclusions: Most AD patients continued systemic treatments during COVID pandemic and lockdown period, without high impact on disease control, particularly dupilumab-treated patients.

In the biologic-treated population, females were significantly affected with PsA (P = 0.00159), while male patients had higher BMI (P = 0.0083), more severe PASI at baseline (P = 0.0022), and had more frequently concurrent chronic/latent infection (0.0074). Interestingly, our results showed that female sex was more frequently affected by AIE (P = 0.0077), independently from disease severity, concomitant PsA, BMI, concurrent chronic/latent infections and comorbidities. However, the frequency of AIE was similar to females in males with smoking habits (P = 0.7456), suggesting that smoking might be a risk factor for males. Moreover, males with AIE had a younger onset of psoriasis compared to female sex with and without AIE and males without AIE (P = 0.0408). Additionally, our results showed that AIE are observed in long-term treated patients (P = 0.0815). Although no association between AIE and a specific biologic was observed, we found differences in the timing of presentation of AIE between biologic classes. Actually, patients treated with anti-IL12/23-Th17 pathway biologics usually reported AIE in the first months of treatment. Conversely, long-term exposure to anti-TNFa might increase observation of AIE (P = 0.0179). When we looked at patients (34/167 patients, 27/34 patients treated with anti-TNFa, 7/34 patients treated with anti-IL-23/23-Th17 pathway) who started the actual biologic between six months and one year from the moment of our observation, we found that AIE had an early presentation in 7/34 patients with only 2/7 patients on anti-TNFa (P = 0.0014). This is an interesting observation that could be linked to the different mechanisms of action and the different dosing schedule among all the biologics; however, given the small numbers of patients, our data need to be confirmed. Concomitant chronic latent HBV and HCV infections were not considered a limitation for biologics prescription. 9,10 In our study, these conditions did not influence the occurrence of AIE, occurring more frequently in the male sex that displayed fewer AIE. Following standard protocols, no tubercular reactivations were reported. In conclusion, we believe that factors such as sex, smoking, earlier onset of psoriasis, total comorbidities and overall biologic treatment duration are relevant in the management of moderate-to-severe psoriasis, besides the class of biologic agents. It should be advisable to consider vaccination for varicella-zoster virus, HBV, influenza virus, Hib virus and HPV in patients with psoriasis.