clinical significance of atopic dermatitis with hypoalbuminemia in korean children

Background: hypoalbuminemia can be a life-threatening complication of severe atopic dermatitis (ad). objectives: the aim of this study was to evaluate correlations between clinical features and laboratory tests of ad children with scoring atopic dermatitis (scorad) scores ≥ 40, according to the presence of hypoalbuminemia. methods: children with ad between 3 and 24 months of age with scorad score ≥ 40 (n = 82), admitted to our unit from june 2007 to march 2016, were categorized to two groups of hypoalbuminemic (n = 27) and non-hypoalbuminemic (n = 55). a blood albumin level of ≤ 3.5 g/d on the first day of admission was considered as hypoalbuminemia. the results of clinical and laboratory tests of the two groups were evaluated and compared. results: significant differences were observed in different genders, age at ad onset, and duration of ad between the groups. compared with non-hypoalbuminemia group, significantly more patients in hypoalbuminemia group had positive test results for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (mrsa) as well as allergen sensitization (p < 0.05). after adjusting for age and gender, male gender (odds ratio (or) 5.962; 95% confidence interval (ci) 2.136 - 16.644, p = 0.001), positive mrsa (or, 10.625; 95% ci, 2.823 - 39.982, p < 0.001) and allergen (or, 4.622; 95% ci, 1.573 - 13.578, p = 0.005) test results were strongly related to the presence of hypoal-buminemia. conclusions: hypoalbuminemia in ad children with scorad score ≥ 40 is associated with increased complications.