Serum lactate dehydrogenase is a novel marker for the evaluation of disease severity in the early stage of toxic epidermal necrolysis.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and its correlation with skin manifestations in patients with Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN).


METHODS
Serum LDH levels were measured in 33 patients (17 SJS and 16 TEN), from initial hospital admission to remission stage.


RESULTS
The mean LDH level was 920.82 +/- 655.50 U/l in TEN and 595.35 +/- 182.03 U/l in SJS (normal range: 218-472). We arbitrarily divided these patients into 2 groups, the first were admitted within 3 days of onset (early stage) and the second after 4 days of onset (late stage). The ratio of early- to late-stage patients was 7:9 in TEN and 7:10 in SJS. The mean LDH level for 7 TEN patients in the early stage was 1,319.14 +/- 843.10 U/l, which was significantly higher than that of the SJS group (686.71 +/- 171.81 U/l; p = 0.024). In the late-stage patients, the mean levels of TEN and SJS patients were 611.0 +/- 160.33 and 531.4 +/- 167.89 U/l, respectively; these differences between TEN and SJS were not significant.


CONCLUSIONS
Serum LDH levels can be used as a marker of disease severity in the early stage of TEN.
Yun
Sook Jung
SJ
Department of Dermatology, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju, South Korea.
Choi
Myoung-Soon
MS
Piao
Mei Shan
MS
Lee
Jee-Bum
JB
Kim
Seong-Jin
SJ
Won
Young Ho
YH
Lee
Seung-Chul
SC
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007770:L-Lactate Dehydrogenase / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013262:Stevens-Johnson Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis*
D015415:Biomarkers; D007770:L-Lactate Dehydrogenase