Methods for the assessment of skin atrophogenicity of topical corticosteroids

A review is given of the methods used to estimate the atrophogenicity of corticosteroids after topical use. An experiment was performed in human volunteers in which measurement of mean epidermal thickness showed that the adverse effect of betamethasone 17-valerate exceeded that of placebo, hydrocortisone 17-butyrate ranking in between. To evaluate the atrophy caused by corticosteroid on dermis the radiological technique of Black was further modified and adapted. With this method clobetasol proprionate proved to give significantly more atrophy compared with a placebo. The atrophy disappeared 2 months after treatment was stopped.