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Validation of the diagnostic criteria for atopic dermatitis
A Firooz1, S M Davoudi, A N Farahmand
1Center for Research and Training in Skin Diseases and Leprosy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran.
Objective:
To validate the accuracy of newly proposed diagnostic criteria for atopic dermatitis (AD).
Design:
Double-blind, cross-sectional study comparing the achievement of new criteria with the diagnosis of a dermatologist.
Setting:
A private, general dermatology, outpatient clinic.
Patients:
A sample of 416 consecutive patients attending the clinic within 2 months (146 males and 270 females), consisting of 60 patients with AD and 356 control patients with other skin diseases.
Main Outcome Measures:
Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of proposed criteria in the diagnosis of AD.
Results:
Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of proposed diagnostic criteria for AD were 10.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 4.1%-21.2%), 98.3% (95% CI, 96.2%-99.3%), 50.0% (95% CI, 22.3%-77.7%), and 86.6% (95% CI, 82.8%-89.7%), respectively.
Conclusions:
These diagnostic criteria for AD are highly specific and are suitable for clinical trials. However, they may not achieve enough sensitivity to be useful for large, population-based epidemiological studies or for routine clinical practice, at least in Iran.