Efficacy of calcipotriol plus betamethasone dipropionate foam on psoriatic skin lesions beyond human eyes: An observational study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Calcipotriol plus betamethasone dipropionate foam has been developed as a new topical therapeutic option for psoriasis, whose effect has been documented mainly on clinical basis. METHODS: We decided to evaluate its efficacy on 11 patients, not only at the clinical level (by using Psoriasis Area Severity Index [PASI], Dermatology Life Quality Index [DLQI], and Psoriasis Global Assessment [PGA] clinimetric indexes) but especially from a subclinical viewpoint (by using videocapillaroscopy and thermography). RESULTS: After 4 weeks of treatment with calcipotriol plus betamethasone dipropionate foam, there was a marked reduction in all three clinimetric indixes PASI, PGA, and DLQI (DLQI mean value decreased from 13.45 ± 3.59 to 6.82 ± 3.31 (p = 0.001), PASI from 7.909 ± 2.857 to 4.582 ± 2.422 (p = 0.001), PGA from 1.8 ± 0.6 to 0.7 ± 0.4 (p = 0.002). From thermographic survey, a significant reduction of mean value of ΔT (temperature difference [°C] between center of the lesions and their periphery [healthy skin]), from 0.28 ± 0.99 to −0.42 ± 0.39 (p = 0.058), was observed. An exceptional reduction of capillaries of psoriatic plaques was detected through videocapillaroscopy (capillary density decreased from 27.91 ± 6.70 capillaries/mm(2) to 4.54 ± 2.77 capillaries/mm(2) (p = 0.001), with an 83.73% reduction). CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate both clinical and subclinical efficacy of calcipotriol plus betamethasone dipropionate foam on psoriatic skin lesions. The subclinical improvement detected, not only demonstrates that the therapeutic effect of foam is truly due to a decrease in inflammation, but, being earlier and more effectively detectable than clinical benefit, suggests future applications of thermography and videocapillaroscopy in evaluating the in vivo effect of therapies for psoriasis, and, in general, the course of the disease “beyond human eyes.”