The proactive treatment of atopic dermatitis with tacrolimus ointment in Korean patients: a comparative study between once-weekly and thrice-weekly applications

Abstract

Funding sources: This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (No. 2012 RIAIB 3002196 and No. 2012 ‐ 0004228) and by a grant from Amore Pacific Co. Ltd., 2011. Conflicts of interest: none declared. Madam, Atopic dermatitis (AD) typically runs a chronic course of flares and remissions. A proactive approach, with long‐term treatment of AD using low‐dose, intermittent, topical anti‐inflammatory agents has been shown to control acute disease and prevent relapses.1, 2 Tacrolimus ointment is a topical calcineurin inhibitor (TCI) that has been demonstrated to be efficient in the treatment of AD; the effectiveness of proactive treatment with tacrolimus has been confirmed in previous clinical trials.3–6 To date, no study has compared the efficacy and tolerability of different proactive treatment regimens, such as the frequency of tacrolimus ointment application. We compared the effectiveness of proactive treatment with tacrolimus ointment administered either once weekly or thrice weekly in delaying and reducing the occurrence of AD exacerbations.