Clinical Characteristics of Hidradenitis Suppurativa Patients from a Reference Centre in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Introduction: Clinical data on hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) derived mainly from studies in Western Europe and the USA, raising the risk of potential selection bias. According to the official data, during 2006-2015 the incidence of HS in Lithuania was 23.5 cases per 100,000 population with a female-to-male ratio of 2:1. A more fine-grained data set would however be of great relevance to further understanding this disease. Collection of standardized data enables the comparison of populations of patients across samples. Objectives: To present a cohort of HS patients with uniformly collected data according to European Hidradenitis Suppurativa Foundation/European Reference Network-Skin recommendations. Methods: The demographic and clinical data of a total of 37 HS patients, included over a 3-year period (from 2016 to January 2019) in a local database of the reference centre of Rare Skin Diseases in the Hospital of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kauno Klinikos, were analysed. Non-parametric tests such as chi(2) and Mann-Whitney were used for assessing interdependence between qualitative data. Logistic regression analysis was performed to find out the factors statistically related with significant diagnostic delay. Results: The mean duration of diagnosis delay was 5.5 (+/- 5.9) years in females and 6.6 (+/- 8.2) years in males. A significant delay (>2 years) was reported in 29/37 (78.4%) cases and was not related with sex, age at HS diagnosis or disease severity. The groin area was more affected in females than in males. There was no statistically significant difference between sex and Hurley stage, HS Physician Global Assessment, International Hidradenitis Suppurativa Severity Score System, visual analogue scale and Dermatology Life Quality Index scores. Combined (medical and surgery) HS treatment was applied to 46.0% and monotherapy (medical or surgery) to 54.0% of patients. Conclusions: Standardized collection of epidemiological and clinical data is required to improve the quality of HS patient data and allow for international comparisons and pooling of data for research purposes.