Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Does tacrolimus ointment affect allergy skin tests in dogs
By Marsella, R et al.·Published in Veterinary dermatology·2004·Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Investigation on the effects of topical therapy with 0.1% tacrolimus ointment (Protopic) on intradermal skin test reactivity in atopic dogs.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of nine dogs with atopic dermatitis (a skin allergy) were treated with a topical ointment called tacrolimus for four weeks to see how it affected their skin allergy test results. While the ointment didn't change the immediate reactions to allergens, it did reduce some delayed reactions after the treatment ended. After stopping the ointment, some of the reduced reactions returned to normal by four weeks. This suggests that tacrolimus can help manage skin allergies in dogs, but if you're looking to evaluate immediate reactions, you don't need to stop the treatment.
People also search for: dog skin allergy treatment · tacrolimus for dog dermatitis · atopic dermatitis in dogs
Abstract
Tacrolimus ointment (TAC) is an effective treatment for atopic dermatitis in humans and dogs. The purposes of the present study were to evaluate the effect of 4 weeks of TAC on intradermal skin testing (IST), and in case of suppression, to investigate if reactivity returned to baseline by 2 or 4 weeks post treatment. Intradermal skin test was performed using saline, histamine, lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 0.4 mg mL(-1)), house dust (25 PNU mL(-1)) and house dust mite (1 : 40 000 w/v) at weeks 0, 4, 6 and 8 on nine dogs enrolled in a blinded, crossover, clinical trial, using 0.1% TAC or placebo once daily for 4 weeks. Reactions were evaluated at 15 min, and at 4 and 6 h. Ointment was applied after the 15-min evaluation on weeks 0 and 4. Data were analysed using the statistical software SAS System for Windows. At week 4, TAC did not affect 15-min IST, but some reactions in the TAC group were suppressed at 6 h compared to baseline. In the TAC group, 4-h IST reactivity was reduced 2 weeks after discontinuation but returned to baseline by 4 weeks. In conclusion, TAC has no effect on immediate reactions but decreased some late-phase reactions. Therefore, no withdrawal is recommended to evaluate only immediate reactions, but a 4-week withdrawal may be necessary for evaluation of late-phase reactions.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15305928/