Year: 2025
Type: conference-abstract
Abstract: Despite its prevalence and significant social, psychological and health impacts, vitiligo is an understudied condition. We present early insights into clinical features associated with vitiligo progression using the Vitiligo Registry and Bioresource (VOICE) developed at the specialist vitiligo service at a large London trust. The VOICE registry is a rapidly growing resource for patients with vitiligo treated at the UK’s first specialist vitiligo service (established 2018; current n = 546). The registry integrates clinical features, psychological impacts, family history and vitiligo treatments including phototherapy. In the 259 people with ≥ 12-month follow-up data available, we present a first look at the baseline demographics and clinical features of our cohort, including Vitiligo Extent Score (VES), disease duration, lesion location and recent vitiligo spread (new growth and/or new vitiligo lesions in the previous 6 months). We examine the associations between these clinical features and disease progression at 12 months, estimated using univariate logistic regression models. Disease progression was defined using an approach that considered both relative and absolute changes in VES. The 259 patients included had a mean age of 40 years (SD 11.5), 52% were female and the median baseline VES score was 2.31. At 12 months, 74 (29%) of these 259 patients had evidence of disease progression. Age [odds ratio (OR) 1.02, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.00–1.03; P = 0.06, per year increase] and sex (OR 1.67, 95% CI 0.97–2.92; P = 0.07, female vs. male) were not associated with progressive disease. In contrast, disease progression was associated with several clinical features, in particular longer disease duration at initial assessment (OR per year 1.02, 95% CI 1.00–1.04; P = 0.04), lesion location on the hands and face (OR for visible lesions on the face or hands vs. elsewhere 5.11, 95% CI 1.46–32.4; P = 0.03) and patient-reported recent vitiligo spread (OR 2.33, 95% CI 1.19–4.88; P = 0.02). Encouragingly for patients, there was no evidence of an association between baseline vitiligo extent as measured by VES and disease progression (OR for continuous baseline VES score, per 1-unit percentage increase 1.01, 95% CI 0.99–1.02, P = 0.36). Extensive disease is not untreatable disease! The VOICE registry provides insights into the demographics, clinical features and disease progression of patients with vitiligo using specialist clinical data not available in routine health records. The registry will support future research into risk stratification, targeted management and therapeutic intervention strategies to improve the clinical care of people with vitiligo.
Source: British Journal of Dermatology
Language: English
Subfield: Cell Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4411733157