Clinical and Biochemical Evaluation of Facial Acanthosis Nigricans

Abstract

Background: Acanthosis nigricans is a well known cause of facial melanosis in Iraqi males and usually it is a part of ordinary acanthosis nigricans. It is commonly associated with many metabolic derangements. Objectives: To evaluate cases of acanthosis nigricans of the face for all metabolic disturbances including fasting blood sugar, fasting serum insulin, total cholesterol, triglyceride, growth hormone and serum leptin. Patients and Methods: Twenty seven cases of acanthosis nigricans of the face were included in this case descriptive, clinical and biochemical study. This was conducted in Department of Dermatology-Baghdad Teaching Hospital and Department of Clinical Biochemistry, College of Medicine, Baghdad, Iraq during the period from November 2012-August 2014. It consisted of 26 males and one female, their ages ranged from 16 - 58 (39 ± 4.9) years. The diagnosis was established by clinical and histopathological evaluation. Sharquie’s ANSI scoring of acanthosis nigricans of face was carried out for all patients, also body mass index was assessed. Biochemical evaluation was carried out for all patients including total cholesterol, triglyceride, fasting blood sugar and insulin, insulin resistance, growth hormone and leptin enzyme immunoassay. Twenty seven healthy control non obese individuals with comparable ages and gender were assessed for all tests. Results: Biochemical results showed that fasting blood glucose, fasting serum insulin, insulin resistance, fasting serum triglyceride, total cholesterol, growth hormone and serum leptin were statistically significantly high in patients with acanthosis nigricans of the face in comparison with control individuals and all were positively correlated with the scoring of acanthosis nigricans of the face apart from high density lipoprotein was negatively correlated. Conclusion: Acanthosis nigricans of the face is a good marker for the associated metabolic diseases and these metabolic changes were statistically significantly correlated with the severity of acanthosis nigricans.