Analysis of blood lipid in 89 acne patients with oral isotretinoin

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the characteristics of blood lipid in acne patients with oral isotretinoin. Methods: 89 acne patients with complete data diagnosed in the dermatology clinic from August 2018 to February 2019 were analyzed retrospectively. Results: A total of 89 acne patients were included. All patients received 20-30 mg isotretinoin daily. At the initial diagnosis, all blood lipid tests were within the normal range. After taking the medicine, 35 patients (39.32%) had dyslipidemia, including 6 patients (17.14%) with TC combined with abnormal LDL-C, 29 patients (82.85%) with abnormal LDL-C, and 5 patients (14.28%) with significantly elevated blood lipid. Among them, 34 (97.14%) patients had dyslipidemia in the 8th week and only 1 (2.86%) patient had dyslipidemia in the 16th week. The levels of TC, TG and LDL-C in all patients were higher than those before at week 8 and 16 (all P<0.01). HDL-C in all patients decreased compared with the baseline level before at week 8 and 16 (P<0.01). TC and LDL-C increased first and then decreased. Conclusion: After taking isotretinoin, TC, TG and LDL-C increase and HDL-C decrease, and the vast majority of patients with dyslipidemia only show slight abnormality of LDL-C, which appear in the 8th week of taking isotretinoin, and then tend to be stable or even decreased.

Keywords

• isotretinoin
• acne
• dyslipidemia