Clinical trials and experimental
Morfophysiological particularities of ageing skin: gender-related differences
The skin represents one of the biggest organ in the human body and, like all the other tissues, undergoes an ageing process over the time. The skin is the most important organ in which the ageing processes are visible. Skin ageing is associated with a higher rate of skin conditions, including tumours, and with significant psychological stress. Over the last decade, skin ageing processes have begun to gain importance in senescence pathology.
The present study aims at making gender-related correlations in the morphophysiological particularities of skin ageing.
The studied sample consisted of 180 patients, aged over 60, admitted between 2008 and 2009 at the Dermatology Hospital Timi?oara. 89 patients (49.44 per cent) were males and 91 (50.55 per cent) were females.
We studied gender-related occurrence and incidence of 20 skin conditions that affect the elderly: skin alteration from chronic venous insufficiency, dermatitis, endogenous eczema, basal cell carcinoma, psoriasis, prurigo, skin rush, herpes zoster, eczematites, disseminated lupus erythematosus, lichen planus, seborrheic keratosis, spinocellular carcinoma, cutaneous horn, seborrheic verruca, cellulitis, nodular vasculitis, erythema multiforme and skin lymphoma. We also studied the association of these skin problems with three other parameters: arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus and obesity.
From our study, we observed o certain pattern for higher risk skin pathology: female, aged 80 to 90 years, who lives alone and has at least one of the studied comorbidities.