From the Journals

Low incidence of HS in children does not diminish importance of early diagnosis

Publish date: May 1, 2018
By
Jill D. Pivovarov

 

FROM THE JOURNAL OF INVESTIGATIVE DERMATOLOGY

Hidradenitis suppurativa, which occurs in only 28 per 100,000 U.S. children and teens, is most common in African American and biracial girls aged 15-17 years, a study has found.

“The relatively low disease burden must not overshadow the extreme quality of life impact this disease has on those afflicted with it,” noted Amit Garg, MD, and associates at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hyde Park, N.Y.

hidradenitis suppurativa Elsevier
The cross-sectional gender- and age-adjusted population analysis established an overall standardized point prevalence of 0.028%, occurring in 1,240 U.S. patients aged 0-17 years with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) in a population of 4,578,790 for whom gender and age was known; the standardized prevalence was 28 per 100,000. Patients were classified into one of three age groups (0-9 years, 10-14 years, and 15-17 years) and one of five racial classifications (Caucasian alone, African American alone, Biracial [Caucasian and African American], other, and unknown).

The clinical term “hidradenitis’ was used to locate pediatric patients within a multi-institutional database of 55 million patients participating in 27 integrated health care organizations whose records were active in the database between March 2014 and March 2017.

The standardized prevalence of HS among girls was 3.75 times greater than in boys (P less than .0001), and the condition was most common in those aged 15-17 years (72%) across each racial group. “HS disproportionately affects African American children and adolescents, who have a 3.5-fold greater standardized prevalence than do Caucasians,” the authors wrote. The report was published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. Specifically, the highest prevalence by race was found in females aged 15-17 years who were African American (525 per 100,000) and biracial (253 per 100,000).

The authors acknowledged the availability of limited existing HS pediatric data from case reports and small series, none of which provided descriptions of subgroups by gender, age, or race.

In their review of the existing literature, Dr. Garg and his associates noted several key observations that may further aid in clinical diagnosis of pediatric patients at greater risk of developing HS:

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