Safety of 0.1% topical tacrolimus in the treatment of vitiligo

Abstract

Cure rates for vitiligo are significantly lower because of problems to different studies have reported different response rate and different adverse effect for the treatment of vitiligo. This study was conducted to evaluate the response rate and adverse effect of topical tacrolimus 0.1% ointment in the treatment of vitiligo patients in the department of Dermatology and venereology, Bangladesh Medical college (BMC), Dhaka from January 2010 to July 2010. In this clinical trial, 30 newly diagnosed vitiligo (focal and segmental) patients, aged between 10 to 50 years were assigned for therapy and to observe the response and adverse effect. Each individual lesion was treated with topical tacrolimus 0.1% ointment twice daily for three months. All the patients completed three months treatment and available for statistical analysis. The highest percentage 13(43.3%) was in the age of 11-20 years. Sex ratio revealed higher in case of female 18(60%), with a male-female ratio 1:1.5 and 5(16.67%) patients had vitiligo among their families. Repigmentation was observed in 8 (26.7%) subjects at the end of 4th week, 15 (50.1%) subjects at 8th week and 25 (83.3%) subjects after 12 weeks of therapy. 25 (83.33%) subjects did not complain any adverse effect (like pruritus, burning etc.) and 5 (16.67%) subjects were suffered from different adverse effect of drug, like pruritus observed in 2 (6.7%) subjects and burning in 6 (20%) subjects. This study found that tacrolimus 0.1% ointment to be safe in the treatment of vitiligo, with reduction in the number of vitiliginous spots by increased repigmentation significantly. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjms.v13i3.19147 Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol.13(3) 2014 p.255-259

Effectiveness of topical tacrolimus treatment in vitiligo patients

“…This is supported by many other studies. 16,17,18 According to this study, 61 patients (87.1%) achieved varying levels of repigmentation. 28 patients (40.0%) had reported up to 50% repigmentation.…”

“…Mean age of this study group was 28.52±10.98 years which concurs with other similar studies. 1,16 This study shows the mean involvement of the body surface area before treatment was 6.84%, which is reduce to 4.25% after treatment. It revealed that there is a strong association between tacrolimus use and repigmentation (P< 0.001).…”

“…19,20 This result is also differ from Lepe et al, where they found tacrolimus produce more than 75% repigmentation, most of this on facial areas. 15,16,17 The probable causes of the difference is the concentration difference of tacrolimus 0.03% vs 0.1%.…”

The treatment efficacy of vitiligo patients attending in a dermatology clinic: an impact of clinico-epidemiological profiles and co-morbidities

“…Melanocytes in the epidermis and hair follicles become inactive or die, leading to the acquired depigmentary disease known as vitiligo. It is a global skin condition and even seen in Bangladesh (Hazra et al, 2014;Bergqvist and Ezzedine, 2020). Overall, 1-2% of the world's population is affected by this confined, acquired, hypomelanotic or de-melanotic skin condition, which is characterized by milky white patches of various sizes and forms.…”