The term "panniculitis" refers to a heterogeneous group of conditions that involve inflammation of the subcutaneous cellular tissue. Although there is no universally accepted classification of panniculitis, to facilitate the diagnosis, they were divided into two large classes, based on the histopathological criteria: predominantly lobular and predominantly septal panniculitis. Depending on the presence or absence of vascular damage, each of the two classes mentioned above is divided in turn into panniculitis without vasculitis and panniculitis with vasculitis. The diagnosis of various types of panniculitis can sometimes be very difficult, due to the histopathological changes that occur in the various evolutionary stages of the lesions. Thus, the positive diagnosis relies on the corroboration of clinical data, histopathological examination, and ancillary laboratory tests. We provide an overview of the clinical and histopathological features of panniculitis, classified according to the histopathological criteria.
Psoriasis is a chronic, immune-mediated inflammatory disease that significantly affects a patient’s quality of life. Several systemic complications can influence disease progression and response to treatment. Biological therapy is considered the most effective therapeutic option in treating moderate to severe forms of psoriasis. The success of therapy may depend on its persistence, also known as drug survival. The dermatologist needs to be aware of comorbidities and factors that influence the persistence or discontinuation of biological treatment to make appropriate treatment decisions. We have identified several studies on the persistence of biologic therapy or drug survival in patients with psoriasis and summarized some of the most important issues known to date. In several recently published studies, the survival of ustekinumab is better than TNF‐α inhibitors but lower than ixekizumab. Notably, the studies were performed on a limited number of patients and follow-up time. Moreover, secukinumab appears to have a shorter drug survival than other biological agents, especially in patients with biological experience. A real indicator of therapeutic success could be a high quality of life. Female gender and obesity have been consistently highlighted among the predictors of treatment discontinuation, while psoriatic arthritis could be a predictor of persistence and maintenance of biological therapy. We are currently aiming to improve the therapy for patients treated with biological agents to reduce the pressure on the national public health system.
