The percentage of patients achieving PASI 75 after 1 month and remission time after climatotherapy at the Dead Sea.
BACKGROUND
Dead Sea climatotherapy (DSC) is a highly effective treatment for psoriasis; however, there are scanty data concerning the duration of post-therapy remission.


OBJECTIVE
Assessment of the duration of remission in patients suffering from plaque-type psoriasis after a 4-week DSC.


METHODS
Sixty-four patients from Germany (66% men; average age: 41.5 years) underwent a 4-week course of DSC between September 2001 and November 2002. After returning home, patients were asked to inform their dermatologist immediately when new lesions appeared. In parallel, they were called every 3 months by telephone. All patients who reported new skin lesions underwent a physical examination, including a Psoriasis Assessment Severity Index (PASI).


RESULTS
(1) Time of recurrence of a psoriatic lesion after complete or almost complete clearance, defined as duration of remission; (2) time that elapsed until a relapse of 50% of the PASI improvement occurred, defined as duration of therapeutic effect.


RESULTS
Mean PASI value before and after treatment was 31.7 and 1.42, showing a 95.5% improvement. All patients reached PASI 50, and 75.9% of them reached PASI 75 after 1 month of DSC. The median time of remission was 23.1 weeks. The median time of duration of therapeutic effect was 33.6 weeks. Statistical multivariable analysis indicated that a patient's younger age at the time of treatment was associated with a longer period of remission.


CONCLUSIONS
Four-week DSC is an effective remittive treatment for plaque-type psoriasis. The period of remission induced compares favorably with other accepted modalities of treatment.
Harari
Marco
M
Dead Sea Research Center, Neveh Zohar, The Dead Sea, Israel. dmz@lothotel.co.il
Novack
Lena
L
Barth
Joachim
J
David
Michael
M
Friger
Michael
M
Moses
Shimon W
SW
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D013790:Climatotherapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011565:Psoriasis / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D011788:Quality of Life; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D012008:Recurrence; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014467:Ultraviolet Therapy / Q000379:methods*