An international research team wanted to create an index chart showing the various stages of skin in children with eczema.
When it comes to health and diet, a lot of information can be traced back to the state of one’s gut. This theory can be applied to the skin as well.
“A central goal of human microbiome projects is to diagnose and predict the human’s healthy or unhealthy state via the microbiome,” said XU Jian Author and Director of QIBEBT at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The more information scientists find out about the skin’s microbiome, the better they can predict how the skin will react to certain treatments.
However, one challenge they’re currently facing is the differing outside factor when it comes to diagnosing the skin. People in each country experience different environmental elements, health statuses, diet and more making it harder to assess the treatment of eczema.
In order for researchers to complete this index chart, they enlisted the help of children with regular skin and those with atopic dermatitis. They focused on children from three major cities: Beijing, Quindao, and Denver. Quindao is a Coastal city in China, whereas Denver is located in the US mountains. They specifically targeted these cities due to their different elevation levels.
Between these three cities, they’ve identified 25 bacterial genera. This is what helped them create the Microbial index of Skin Health chart.
The MiSH chart has an 83 to 95 percent accuracy which is much better than previous systems for diagnosing eczema.
“MiSH can identify a risk-prone skin state and predict treatment effect in children, suggesting applications in patient stratification and personalized treatment in the clinics and in the skin care industry.” ~ SUN Zheng (Researcher)
The creation of the MiSH chart will help further research in finding predicting treatment responses and overall skin health within a wider context.
Source: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-08/caos-sus082219.php