Author(s): Marwa Abdallah, Ahmed Abdelfattah Afify, Marwa Kamal Asaad and Reham Mohamed Ahmed Hassan
Objectives: Stability is an essential aspect in the surgical treatment of vitiligo. One or more year stability has been suggested for better surgery outcome. Recently, the chemokine CXCL10 has emerged as a putative serum marker that correlated with disease activity. The aim of the current work was to evaluate the serum level of CXCL10 versus minigrafting in predicting surgical stability in vitiligo.
Methods: Fifteen patients with 6-11 months stable disease (group 1) and fifteen patients with at least 12 months stability (group 2) were subjected to a minigraft test and evaluation of serum level of CXCL10. Repigmentation was evaluated at 3 months.
Results: Serum level of CXCL10 was not different between both groups (p >0.05). Minigraft test was positive in 40.0% in group 1 vs. 86.7% in group 2 (p=0.008). The extent of repigmentation at 3 months in patients with longer stability was significantly higher than those with shorter disease stability (p=0.023). In group 1 but not group 2, a negative minigraft test was associated with higher CXCL10 level (p=0.008). Moreover, a negative correlation was found between serum CXCL10 level and extent of repigmentation in group 1 (R=-0.670, p=0.006), but not in group 2 (R=-0.030, p=0.916). ROC analysis showed that a CXCL10 level less than 52 ng/L is associated with a positive MGT. The test had 47.4% sensitivity and 100% specificity.
Conclusion: Herein we have shown that ≥ 1 year stability is essential before attempting surgery. Minigraft test remains to be a reliable tool to detect disease stability. CXCL10 level may be helpful in patients with shorter disease stability.