title: Relationship between hypogammaglobulinemia and severity of atopic dermatitis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Atopic dermatitis is an itchy, inflammatory, chronic, or chronically relapsing skin disease. The disease occurs in people who have an "atopic tendency" or may appear as a clinical sign of primary immunodeficiency.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the relation between severity of atopic dermatitis and hypogammaglobulinemia.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred sixty pediatric patients with atopic dermatitis (98 boys and 62 girls, 1-60 months old, median age 14.5 months) and 95 healthy children (57 boys and 38 girls, median age 16 months; control group) were included in the study. In patients with atopic dermatitis, the severity of disease was determined by the SCORing Atopic Dermatitis index. Serum immunoglobulin levels of all patients and children in the control group were measured by nephelometry on admission.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The incidence of hypogammaglobulinemia was higher in patients with atopic dermatitis than in the control group (P = .009). The main reason for this difference was the low level of IgG in the atopic dermatitis group (P = .024). Analysis of the relation between hypogammaglobulinemia and the severity of atopic dermatitis showed no statistically significant difference between the group with mild to moderate atopic dermatitis and the group with severe atopic dermatitis with respect to hypogammaglobulinemia (P = .859), IgG (P = .068), IgA (P = .410), and IgM (P = .776) values.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Hypogammaglobulinemia was more frequent in patients with atopic dermatitis compared with the control group, mostly owing to the low IgG level. Hypogammaglobulinemia is not associated with the severity of atopic dermatitis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, Medical Faculty, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun, Turkey. Electronic address: drmhc@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Mehmet Halil
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Celiksoy
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, Medical Faculty, Inonu University, Malatya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Erdem
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Topal
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, Medical Faculty, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun, Turkey.
authors.forename: Recep
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sancak
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, Medical Faculty, Inonu University, Malatya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ferhat
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Catal
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, Medical Faculty, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ayhan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sogut
mesh_terms: D000361:Agammaglobulinemia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003876:Dermatitis, Atopic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology*; D004802:Eosinophilia / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007070:Immunoglobulin A / Q000097:blood; D007073:Immunoglobulin E / Q000097:blood; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood*; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000097:blood; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012882:Skin Tests
chemical_list: D007070:Immunoglobulin A; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M; D007073:Immunoglobulin E