Efficacy of topical application of Pimecrolimus cream in the treatment of discoid lupus erythematosus.

The interventional type of study to assess the efficacy of Pimecrolimus cream in the treatment of patient of localized discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE) was carried out for a period of July 2008 to June 2009. It was observed that before treatment, erythema was severe in 43.2% cases, moderate in 51.4% cases and mild type erythema was present in 5.4% cases. The post- treatment revealed, 29.7% severe type erythema, none evidenced moderate type erythema, only 43.2% had mild type and 27% cases no erythema at all. Before treatment, infiltration was severe in 27% cases, moderate in 54.1% cases and only 18.9% had mild type infiltration. But after treatment, 10.8% had severe type infiltration, 18.9% had moderate, 51.4% had mild and 18.9% had no infiltration at all. Similar response to treatment was noticed with squamation which exhibited a drop from 37.8% to 18.9% in severe cases and from 62.2% to 10.8% in moderate cases. There was a 45.9% mild case and 24.3% had no squamation. The scoring result of photosensitivity, itching, disfigurement evidenced analogously score reduction of 2.0, 3.05 and 3.12 respectively. In conclusion, it was interpreted that score of patients of DLE, before treatment was 6.83 ± 1.30 and after treatment was 3.83 ± 1.18. Unpaired 't' test was found statistically significant (p<0.05) between before and after treatment by drug. Improvement was shown in 26(70.27%) cases and 11(29.73%) cases shown no improvement at all. Marked improvement observed on the 2nd follow up visit at the end of 12 weeks. Response was good in 23(88.46%) cases, fair 2(7.69%) and poor 1(3.85%) cases. The study suggests that pimecrolimus 1% cream has significant efficacy profile for treatment option of cutaneous lupus erythematosus.