TY - JOUR A1 - Parasramani, Shrichand A1 - Thomas, Jayakar A1 - Budamakuntla, Leelavathy A1 - Dhoot, Dhiraj A1 - Barkate, Hanmant T1 - Real-world experience on the effectiveness and tolerability of apremilast in patients with plaque psoriasis in India Y1 - 2019/7/1 JF - Indian Journal of Drugs in Dermatology JO - Indian J Drugs Dermatol SP - 83 EP - 88 VL - 5 IS - 2 UR - https://www.ijdd.in/article.asp?issn=2455-3972;year=2019;volume=5;issue=2;spage=83;epage=88;aulast=Parasramani DO - 10.4103/ijdd.ijdd_16_19 N2 - Introduction: Apremilast, a phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor, has been recently approved for the management of plaque psoriasis in India in 2017. However, no real-world experience pertaining to apremilast has been documented. Materials and Methods: A retrospective review of medical records was conducted of all patients across India who were prescribed apremilast for an entire 16 weeks. The primary endpoint was the percentage of patients achieving the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) 75 at 16 weeks. The secondary endpoints were as follows: (i) change in mean PASI; (ii) change in mean body surface area (BSA); (iii) percentage of patients who achieved PASI 50, 90, and 100; and (iv) adverse events (AEs) reported. Results: We analyzed the records of 105 patients. Mean age was 41 years and mean disease duration was 6.75 years. All the patients had previously received some forms of systemic treatment. Forty-three patients (41%) achieved ≥ PASI 75 of which four patients (3.8%) and five patients (4.76%) achieved PASI 100 and PASI 90, respectively at week 16. Moreover, 28 patients (26.7%) demonstrated PASI 50 response. Baseline mean PASI score of 14.78 reduced to 4.5 (−69.55%), whereas mean BSA score of 24.4 reduced to 8.24 (−66.3%). Nine patients discontinued apremilast due to adverse effects. Thirty-five patients (33.3%) had one or more AEs, diarrhea being the most common (30.5%) followed by nausea (20.3%). Most AEs were mild to moderate in severity. Conclusion: These results, from a real-world setting in India, confirm the effectiveness and tolerability of apremilast as seen in clinical trials. ER -