CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND SERUM CONCENTRATIONS OF SOME T-HELPER 2-DERIVED CYTOKINES IN PATIENTS WITH GENERALIZED ERYTHEMA MULTIFORME

Abstract

Objective: To describe the clinical characteristics of patients with erythema multiforme (EM) presenting with generalized skin lesions and to investigate the serum concentrations of certain T-helper 2 (Th2) cytokines in these patients, exploring their correlation with specific clinical features.

Subjects and Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study included 33 patients diagnosed with EM featuring generalized skin lesions at the National Hospital of Dermatology and Venereology from April 2017 to August 2019. Additionally, 32 healthy controls (HCs) participated as the control group. Clinical examinations, medical history interviews, and serum sample collections were conducted for all subjects. The fluorescence covalent microbead immunosorbent assay technique was used to detect multiple cytokines simultaneously: IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13. The Mann-Whitney U test compared the serum cytokine levels between the two groups, with statistical significance set as p<0.05. Pearson's test was applied to evaluate the correlation between two quantitative variables.

Results: The mean age of EM patients with generalized lesions was 42.2 years; 30.3% were male, and 69.7% were female. Twenty-two patients (66.7%) had an illness duration of less than one week—a history of medication use before illness onset was reported by 60.6% of patients. Only 15.2% of patients had mucosal lesions. In the EM group, serum levels of IL-4 and IL-5 were 1.55±4.35 pg/ml and 7.12±18.91 pg/ml, respectively, which were lower than those in the HCs group (9.15±10.17 pg/ml and 21.38±20.85 pg/ml, respectively), p<0.001. Serum IL-13 levels were identical in both groups (1.48 pg/ml). No correlation was found between serum IL-4 levels and age (r=0.08; p>0.05), nor between serum IL-5 levels and age (r=-0.055; p>0.05).

Conclusion: Th2 cytokine levels in the EM group with generalized skin lesions were lower compared to the HCs group, with no correlation between these cytokine levels and age. Th2 is likely not an important factor in the pathogenesis of generalized EM.

Received: 16 May 2023
Revised: 24 June 2023
Accepted: 22 July 2023