Skin barrier function in patients with completely healed atopic dermatitis

Although it has been well established that the dry skin often seen in patie nts with atopic dermatitis shows a deranged barrier function, there is no u nanimity of opinion as to whether the barrier in normal-appearing skin of p atients with the disease is deranged or not. Hence, it remains unclear whet her individuals with atopic dermatitis constitution have an intrinsic deran gement of skin barrier function or not. To settle this problem, in the pres ent study we examined transepidermal water loss and stratum corneum water c ontent in normal appearing skill of the upper back of 16 patients with comp letely healed atopic dermatitis who had been free from skin symptoms for 5 years or more, 30 patients with active atopic dermatitis, and 39 healthy su bjects. The transepidermal water loss values and the stratum corneum water content values in normal-appearing skin of the completely healed patients w ere not different from the values in normal controls. These findings indica te that skin barrier function is not disturbed in patients with completely healed atopic dermatitis. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.