Eczema Free Forever™ Eczema Free Forever™

Category Archives: what can cure eczema

what can cure eczema

Psoriasis Increases Risk Of Diabetes

Posted on by

AppId is over the quota AppId is over the quota Main Category: Eczema / Psoriasis
Also Included In: Diabetes
Article Date: 29 Aug 2012 – 1:00 PST Current ratings for:
Psoriasis Increases Risk Of Diabetes
1 starnot yet rated
Patients with psoriasis are at high risk of new-onset diabetes mellitus, according to research presented at ESC Congress 2012. The findings were presented at the press conference by Dr Ole Ahlehoff from Copenhagen University Hospital, Gentofte, Denmark and at the scientific session by Usman KHALID.

Psoriasis is a common chronic inflammatory disease that affects approximately 125 million people worldwide. A new study of the entire Danish population confirms previous reports of increased risk of diabetes mellitus in patients with psoriasis and shows that risk increases with severity of psoriasis.


Psoriasis, atherosclerosis, and early steps in the development of diabetes mellitus are characterised by chronic inflammation, i.e. a chronic state of alert. “This chronic state of alert may explain the increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus seen in these patients,” said Dr Ahlehoff.


The study comprised more than 4 million people, including approximately 50,000 patients with psoriasis, who were followed for 13 years. http://www.eczemablog.net/


The overall rates of new-onset diabetes mellitus per 1,000 observational years were 3.67 (CI=3.65-3.69) in the reference population who did not have psoriasis, 6.93 (CI=6.63-7.25) for patients with mild psoriasis and 9.65 (CI=8.68-10.73) for patients with severe psoriasis.


The risk of new-onset diabetes mellitus was increased in all patients with psoriasis compared to people who did not have psoriasis. Risk increased with the severity of psoriasis. Compared to people without psoriasis, patients with mild psoriasis were 1.5 times more likely to acquire new-onset diabetes mellitus [rate ratio (RR)=1.49; CI=1.43-1.56] and patients with severe psoriasis were more than twice as likely [RR=2.13; CI=1.91-2.37].


The results remained significant after adjustment for potential confounders, including age, sex, socioeconomic status, use of medication, and comorbidity.


Dr Ahlehoff said: “The major conclusion of the study was that psoriasis was associated with increased risk of diabetes mellitus and the risk was highest in patients with severe psoriasis.”


“The results add to current evidence of increased risk of cardiovascular and metabolic disease in patients with psoriasis,” he added. “More needs to be done to increase awareness in this large group of patients on what steps they can take to decrease their risk factors for cardiovascular disease.”


Dr Ahlehoff continued: “Studies are urgently required to examine the impact of aggressive psoriasis treatment on cardiometabolic outcomes.”

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click ‘references’ tab above for source.
Visit our eczema / psoriasis section for the latest news on this subject. Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

MLA

European Society of Cardiology. “Psoriasis Increases Risk Of Diabetes.” Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 29 Aug. 2012. Web.
7 Apr. 2013. APA

Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead.


‘Psoriasis Increases Risk Of Diabetes’

Please note that we publish your name, but we do not publish your email address. It is only used to let you know when your message is published. We do not use it for any other purpose. Please see our privacy policy for more information.


If you write about specific medications or operations, please do not name health care professionals by name.


All opinions are moderated before being included (to stop spam)


Contact Our News Editors


For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our feedback form.

Please send any medical news or health news press releases to:


Note: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.



View the original article here


Eczema Blog

Flower Power May Be Answer To Itchy Problem

Posted on by

AppId is over the quota AppId is over the quota Main Category: Dermatology
Also Included In: Eczema / Psoriasis;??Complementary Medicine / Alternative Medicine
Article Date: 26 Jun 2012 – 1:00 PST Current ratings for:
Flower Power May Be Answer To Itchy Problem
5 stars2 stars
Sunflowers may hold the solution to a problem which gets under the skin of millions of Australians every year.

Skin conditions such as eczema, dermatitis, rosacea and the lesser-known Netherton Syndrome pose an itchy problem for many sufferers world-wide, but a group of researchers from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) are looking at ways to soothe the problem – with tiny proteins called peptides, found in sunflowers.


Simon de Veer, a PhD student and researcher for QUT’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI) said his team was working to develop novel inhibitors for three skin proteases – enzymes which play an important role in the skin’s constant regeneration.


By engineering the peptide known as sunflower trypsin inhibitor (SFTI), and modifying its binding surface, researchers have designed inhibitors for three skin proteases, kallikrein-related peptidase (KLK) 5, 7 and 14.http://www.eczemablog.net/


Mr de Veer said it is these inhibitors that are the missing piece of the puzzle for sufferers of skin conditions.


“Proteases in the skin are primarily involved with shedding old cells from the skin’s surface by breaking the connections which normally hold them together as part of a protective barrier,” he said.


“This requires a balancing mechanism to maintain regular skin structure and thickness.


“Too much activity leaves the skin more permeable than usual, meaning it is open to allergens, infection and water loss.”


The naturally occurring SFTI peptide is an effective inhibitor of a protease called trypsin, which resembles the kallikrein proteases in our skin.


“Our goal was to harness the built-in activity of SFTI and give the binding surface a bit of a facelift so it was better able to target skin proteases and help restore the skin to its original state.”


Mr de Veer said the research he has been working on at QUT would be evaluated and extended upon during an eight-month fellowship with Professor Alain Hovnanian, one of the world’s leading researchers in the field, at his laboratory at Hopital Necker in Paris.


The fellowship was funded by France’s Rene Touraine Foundation, a non-profit European organisation focused on supporting dermatological research, while Mr de Veer’s PhD research has received funding through the State Government’s Smart Futures PhD Scholarship Program.


“Professor Hovnanian’s research team has made countless, highly significant contributions to understanding the genetic, clinical and therapeutic aspects of skin disease,” he said.


“The outcomes of our experiments are likely to provide new insight into how proteases contribute to skin pathology and will potentially lead to new atopic treatments for sufferers of skin disease.”

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Source: Source: Queensland University of Technology
Visit our dermatology section for the latest news on this subject. Source: Queensland University of Technology Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

MLA

Queensland University of Technology. “Flower Power May Be Answer To Itchy Problem.” Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 26 Jun. 2012. Web.
7 Apr. 2013. APA

Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead.


posted by Ken Y on 28 Jun 2012 at 9:05 am

This, with other protein research, suggests an answer to the old joke about dermatologists never curing anything!


| post followup | alert a moderator |


‘Flower Power May Be Answer To Itchy Problem’

Please note that we publish your name, but we do not publish your email address. It is only used to let you know when your message is published. We do not use it for any other purpose. Please see our privacy policy for more information.


If you write about specific medications or operations, please do not name health care professionals by name.


All opinions are moderated before being included (to stop spam)


Contact Our News Editors


For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our feedback form.

Please send any medical news or health news press releases to:


Note: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.



View the original article here


Eczema Blog

Psoriasis Linked To Increased Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease By Mechanistic Discovery

Posted on by

AppId is over the quota AppId is over the quota Main Category: Eczema / Psoriasis
Also Included In: Cardiovascular / Cardiology
Article Date: 14 May 2012 – 0:00 PST Current ratings for:
Psoriasis Linked To Increased Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease By Mechanistic Discovery
not yet ratednot yet rated
The link between psoriasis and cardiovascular events has been observed for years, however the mechanics were unknown. For the first time, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researchers have discovered preclinical evidence demonstrating that the inflammatory skin disease leads to cardiovascular disease. Further, the research demonstrated that aggressive reversal of psoriasis reduces the cardiovascular risk as well. Psoriasis is a chronic disease of the immune system that appears as raised, inflamed, scaly red patches of skin and is often associated with intense itch. In the United States, it affects between two and a half to six million patients. http://www.eczemablog.net/

Published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, the study used a new, innovative mouse model to demonstrate a causal connection between the skin disease and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Ward and her research team demonstrated that mice engineered to overexpress a protein called Tie-2 in the skin, develop a skin condition similar to human psoriasis. Using this model, they showed that persistent, chronic inflammation confined to the skin can result in inflammation in large arteries, such as the aorta.


“This discovery is paradigm shifting. There has been a link between the two diseases but to date we had not been able to show cause. Epidemiologic evidence from thousands of patients was convincing that psoriasis patients had a much greater chance of developing cardiovascular disease and dying from it,” says Nicole Ward, PhD, senior author of the study, assistant professor of dermatology and neurosciences at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, and scientist with the Murdough Family Center for Psoriasis at University Hospitals Case Medical Center.


There is a known increased risk of heart, cerebrovascular, and peripheral artery diseases, as well as risk of death, in individuals suffering from a variety of chronic inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), colitis, gum disease, lupus, and psoriasis. Many researchers showed, statistically, that having psoriasis leads to an increased risk for cardiovascular disease and heart complications, however it was unclear why this occurs and it was challenging to separate out the significance of other lifestyle factors and their contributions to this risk, she adds.


Based on published clinical reports demonstrating psoriasis patients had increased risk of developing and dying of heart attack and stroke, Dr. Ward and her team set-out to investigate whether their mouse model of psoriasis would also show cardiac complications, mimicking these seen in human disease. They teamed up with experts in the role of inflammation in vessel injury – Yunmei Wang, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at the School of Medicine and Daniel I. Simon, MD the Herman K. Hellerstein Professor of Cardiovascular Research at the School of Medicine, and chief, Cardiovascular Medicine at University Hospitals Case Medical Center.


“We believed that chronic inflammation over a large area of the body may be the reason for an increased risk of cardiovascular complications in skin disease patients; however, until now we had no way to model and definitively prove this,” says Dr. Wang.


Dr. Ward and her team measured blood clot formation in the psoriasis mouse model and normal mice, revealing that time was greatly shortened in the diseased mice. This shortened time to vessel blockage is akin to a greater risk for blood vessel blockage in humans that leads to stroke or heart attack. Further examination revealed that mice with the skin disease also exhibited inflammation of the vessel wall similar to that observed with atherosclerotic lesions or plaques.


Importantly, and highly meaningful for patients with psoriasis, Dr. Ward’s work was able to demonstrate that upon reversal of the skin disease, the cardiovascular inflammation and blood clot formation were also decreased.


“Our observations of improved vessel wall inflammation and decreased clot formation following skin-specific repression of disease provide further evidence that skin inflammation promotes vascular inflammation and thrombosis and strongly suggests that aggressive treatment of skin disease may block pathways that produce cardiovascular disease in psoriasis patients,” says Dr. Ward.

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click ‘references’ tab above for source.
Visit our eczema / psoriasis section for the latest news on this subject. Dr. Ward presented these findings at the 2012 Society for Investigative Dermatology Annual Meeting in Raleigh, NC.
This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Psoriasis Foundation, and the Murdough Family Center for Psoriasis.
Case Western Reserve University Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

MLA

Case Western Reserve University. “Psoriasis Linked To Increased Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease By Mechanistic Discovery.” Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 14 May. 2012. Web.
7 Apr. 2013. APA

Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead.


‘Psoriasis Linked To Increased Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease By Mechanistic Discovery’

Please note that we publish your name, but we do not publish your email address. It is only used to let you know when your message is published. We do not use it for any other purpose. Please see our privacy policy for more information.


If you write about specific medications or operations, please do not name health care professionals by name.


All opinions are moderated before being included (to stop spam)


Contact Our News Editors


For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our feedback form.

Please send any medical news or health news press releases to:


Note: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.



View the original article here


Eczema Blog

Jan 14, Link Between Immune System and Food Allergies

Posted on by

A research team in Australia have discovered that there is a link between children who have an over-active immune system, and the development of certain food allergies. They found that children who have an over-active immune system are more likely to develop food allergies in the first few years of life. They aren’t sure why certain children have hyperactive immune cells, though they have found that certain cells are activated before or during birth. Why it happens is unknown. They are going to carry on the research to look for answers that may help to lower the risk of children developing these food allergies.
Eczema Blog

Jan 31, Three Ladies and The Allergy Law Project

Posted on by

Three lawyers from the United States have founded the Allergy Law Project, the Las Vegas Review Journal has reported. The three ladies all have children with food allergies and are working to provide the right information about the law and food allergies. The article is an interesting read about how one of these ladies, Homa Woodrum, found that her first child had developed food allergies. From there she started a blog which provided recipes for families dealing with food allergies. The blog ran a story which caught the attention of an attorney from Maryland, Mary Vargas. Woodrum met Laurel Francoeur, a lawyer from Massachusetts, who came up with the idea of the Allergy Law Project. Together the three ladies provide free information online about the allergy law in the United States. You can read more about their story below
Eczema Blog

The Facts About Oily Skin Care

Posted on by

The facts about Oily skin care

To start the discussion on oily skin care, it’s imperative to first understand the cause behind oily skin. Put simply, oily skin is a result of excessive production of sebum (an oily substance that is naturally produced by skin). As is known to everyone, excess of everything is bad; so excessive sebum is bad too. It leads to clogging of skin pores, resulting in accumulation of dead cells and hence formation of pimples/acne. Moreover, oily skin spoils your looks too. So, ‘oily skin care’ is as important as the ‘skin care’ for other types of skin.

The basic aim of ‘oily skin care’ is the removal of excessive sebum or oil from the skin. However, oily skin care procedures should not lead to complete removal of oil. ‘Oily skin care’ starts with the use of a cleanser. However, not all cleansers will work. You need a cleanser which contains salicylic acid i.e. a beta-hydroxy acid that retards the rate of sebum production. Cleansing should be done twice a day (and even more in hot and humid conditions).

Most of the oily skin care products are oil-free; however, it is always good to check the ingredients of the product, before you actually buy it. This is especially important if a product is marked as ‘suitable for all skin types’, instead of ‘oily skin care product’. ‘Oily skin care’ is also dependent on the degree of oiliness, if you aren’t too oily, so some of these ‘suitable for all’- type of products might be work for you too. For extremely oily skin, only oily skin care products are suitable. Your oily skin care routine can include an alcohol based toner (for an extremely oily skin). This can be the second step in your oily skin care routine i.e. just after cleansing. However, excessive toning can harm your skin.

The next step in your oily skin care routine can be a mild moisturiser. Again, the degree of oiliness of your skin will determine whether you need to include this in your oily skin care routine. If you do decide to include a moisturiser, be sure to use one that is oil-free, wax-free and lipid-free.
You could also use a clay mask (say once a week) as an oily skin care measure.

As far as the oily skin care products go, you might need to try out a few before you arrive at the one that is really suitable for your skin.

In case these measures don’t give you the desired result, consult a good dermatologist for advice. He could prescribe stronger oily skin care products like vitamin A creams, retinoids, sulphur creams etc , which can help counter the problems of oily skin.

Eczema Cure Blog

Surfactant Skincare Series – Impact on Skin

Posted on by

This month, we’re looking at surfactants – the chemical agents in cleansing products. It is important because while surfactants play an important cleansing function, they also potentially cause skin irritation. Last two weeks, we have understood:

  1. Different groups of surfactants and their functions – Anionic, Cationic, Amphoteric and Non-ionic surfactants
  2. What to Look out for when Cleansing Baby Skin – Discussion on the use of liquid cleanser being preferable to water, and what to look out for in the choice of liquid cleanser

Today, we’re looking more in-depth into how surfactants interact with skin and the potential harm to our skin.

Surfactants, while cleanse and remove oil soluble dirt/sebum, also potentially damage skin cells and lipids

Surfactants, while cleanse and remove oil soluble dirt/sebum, also potentially damage skin cells and lipids

Alkalization – The traditional soap is alkaline in nature (pH of 9 and above) and the alkalinity will increase the skin pH (which is of pH 4.6 to 5.6). Modifying the skin pH to more alkaline than it is supposed to be has the impact of (i) reducing skin lipids, including ceramides (ii) allows for growth of harmful bacteria like staph bacteria that thrives in a more alkaline environment and (iii) increases transepidermal water loss (TEWL). Alkaline soap is able to dissolve both fat and water-soluble components of skin. Synthetic cleansers are of varying pH and able to modify the pH of the cleansing product.

Damage to Skin Lipids – Surfactants are able to clean dirt and sebum that are oil-soluble. However, this property also means that surfactants may inadvertently solubilize the skin natural lipid membranes (ceramides). Stronger anionic surfactants like Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS) enhances penetration into the skin and able to affect the deeper skin cells (skin lipids).

Damage to Skin Cells – During washing, the surfactants interact with the skin cells and collagen fibers and cause temporarily swelling and hyper-hydration. Once the water evaporates, there is destruction of the skin protein structures (known as denaturation) and leads to skin dryness, roughness, tightness and scaling. This is an adverse effect of anionic surfactant.

Toxic to Skin Cells – Known as cytotoxicity, surfactants can permeate skin cells and cause irreparable alteration. Certain surfactants such as benzalkonium chloride and cocamidopropyl betaine (CAPB) are known to be more cytotoxic than SLS.  CAPB is an amphoteric surfactant, a group of surfactant less irritating than anionic surfactant (SLS belongs to anionic group) but nonetheless can be cytotoxic. CAPB is also associated with allergic contact dermatitis.

Irritation to Skin – This is related to the duration of exposure, frequency, concentration and individual skin type. SLS is a known irritant that can cause skin inflammation (irritant contact dermatitis) and when combined with triclosan (an antibacterial and antifungal agent in products), can stay on the skin for hours/days. Amphoteric and nonionic surfactants are considered to be less irritating to skin. (Note: Skin irritation and cytotoxity are different concepts.)

What to Note when Choosing Cleansing Products

Based on the above surfactant interaction with skin, it follows that we ought to choose:

  • Products close to the skin pH (even water is not, either neutral pH 7 or sometimes more alkali)
  • It follows then to avoid soaps, which by nature are alkaline
  • Avoid SLS, as it can penetrate, damage and irritant skin
  • Avoid CAPB as it is cytotoxic
  • Choose products with larger micelles as they do not penetrate the skin cells as much (product packaging may not indicate this information so it’s quite hard to know; look out for Polyethylene oxide (PEO)/ PEO Sorbitan Laurate which forms larger micelles in the surfactant or for the term Hydrophobically Modified Polymers (HMPs))
  • Choose cleansing products that are moisturizing and moisturize right after washing
  • Reduce washing for prolonged time and frequent washing
  • Avoid alcohols, gels and alphahydroxy acids that can cause stinging
  • Avoid perfume, benzoyl peroxide, preservatives, parabens, propylene glycol, lanolin, methylisothiazolinone and other top irritants in this post
  • Avoid ingredients ending with sulfates

It is not easy to find a cleanser without any of the above-mentioned ingredient. For those with sensitive skin, it may be better to not wash as often and take care to choose a hypoallergenic product. Try to read the ingredient label of your product and be sure that the first few ingredients are at least not those in this post.

References

Eczema Blues

Not a fan of eczema meta-studies, especially that antibiotics one

Posted on by

You don’t have to look far for an example of how the media can inflate a trivial scientific result into something that looks like important news.

Take last week’s report in the British Journal of Dermatology that exposure of newborns or infants to antibiotics increases the risk of them developing eczema. It was all over the mainstream media, with headlines such as “Report claims antibiotics cause eczema” and “Could Using Antibiotics As A Child Make You Develop Eczema?” I’m still seeing it on Twitter.

I think it’s almost criminally irresponsible to publish news like this when you just know thousands of parents will now hesitate to give their kids antibiotics. The kids will be the ones who suffer needlessly, when they must endure potentially life-threatening infections without treatment.

If giving a child antibiotics substantially increased the risk of developing severe eczema, then that news would be worth paying attention to. But that is not what the BJD paper concludes.

For a start, the paper is a meta-study: a review and summary of a large number of original population studies that other scientists already carried out.

Meta-studies are a great way for scientists to pad their publication records without getting their hands dirty with real research.

In my experience, a meta-study is suspect just because it exists. I don’t see meta-studies coming out in areas in which the science is indisputable (e.g., that UV from the sun causes skin cancer). I see them in areas in which there’s no scientific consensus and most likely the phenomenon under study has a very small real effect. In the field of eczema research, I see meta-studies published about vitamin D, probiotics, traditional Chinese herbal medicine, and so on.

The reason you see meta-studies in these areas is because the trials are all finding different results and someone wants to obtain a big picture of what is going on. Lots of noise and a small signal. If it was obvious what was going on, there’d be no point in a meta-study.

But one major question is how do you compare studies that are done with different aims and measures? This question is especially relevant for the field of eczema research, where there isn’t even a consensus about how to diagnose or measure atopic dermatitis. Not that long ago I went to San Diego as a patient representative to the HOME meeting (the third such get-together), at which researchers were trying to settle on a single standard survey form for measuring how bad a patient’s eczema is. In several meta-studies I have seen the authors mention (i.e. complain) about how difficult it is to draw conclusions from multiple eczema population studies.

Then, the conclusions of the meta-studies are usually weak. The results are almost always presented as “odds ratios,” which to me seem like mathematical sleight-of-hand to inflate very small results. In the antibiotics-early life meta-study, the researchers reported an odds ratio of about 1.4. What this means is you get the number 1.4 when you divide one number, the odds that a child will develop eczema if they get antibiotics, by another number, the odds the child will develop eczema if they are not given antibiotics. If you assume that the second number is about 2:8, or 20% (given that there’s a 20% chance a kid in general will get some kind of eczema) that means, for an odds ratio of 1.4, that there’s a 26% chance a kid given antibiotics will develop eczema.

Big deal, a 6% increase in risk—if you believe the meta-study, which is comparing 20 other studies that all used different methods and measures.

Is that worth risking your child’s life for?
End Eczema

Surprise: Th2 cells, inflammation high in both allergic, non-allergic eczema

Posted on by

When I talked to Jon Hanifin last year he mentioned an intriguing fact: eczema comes in two general types. About 80% of atopic eczema patients have allergies and high levels of IgE antibodies. But twenty per cent of patients have eczema without allergies.

The technical term for allergic eczema is “extrinsic” atopic dermatitis; the non-allergic kind is “intrinsic” AD.

Production of IgE—and most antibodies—is activated by type 2 helper T cells. So scientists have generally assumed that extrinsic AD patients had overactive type 2 helper T cells. But new research shows that type 2 helper T cells are overactive in both intrinsic and extrinsic AD patients.

The scientists, led by Emma Guttman-Yassky at Rockefeller University in New York City, analyzed skin and blood samples from 42 extrinsic and 9 intrinsic AD patients, looking at molecular and cellular differences in the immune system and the skin.

They found that type 2 helper T cell activation is actually higher in intrinsic AD patients than extrinsic AD patients. In fact, markers of inflammation in general are higher in intrinsic AD.

Figure 6 from the paper. Scientists now resort to “word clouds” to convey the complexity of molecular biology!

The results are surprising. Patients with intrinsic AD generally do not go on to develop asthma or allergic rhinitis; yet if you just looked at their helper T cells you’d think they were guaranteed to experience even more severe allergies than those suffered by extrinsic AD patients.

So what’s keeping down the IgE levels in intrinsic AD? In the paper, the authors speculate freely, but so far there is no answer.

It also appears that a special class of helper T cells known as type 17 (so-called because they produce the signaling molecule IL-17A) are also more active in intrinsic than extrinsic AD. It’s not clear yet how scientists might  use this knowledge to design therapies more specific than current T cell-suppressing options such as ciclosporin, which can have severe side effects.

The research suggests that future T-cell related therapies will likely be similar for intrinsic and extrinsic AD, despite the different nature of the disease in the two patient groups.

Hat tip to KMO.
End Eczema