ArticleDermatology and therapy2026
Beyond Drainage: Clinical-Ultrasound Correlation Supports a Broader Definition of the Active Tunnel in Hidradenitis Suppurativa.
Article in Dermatology and therapy, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionCurrent severity classification systems for hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) define tunnel activity almost exclusively by the presence of purulent drainage. In daily clinical practice, however, non-draining tunnels frequently exhibit other signs suggestive of ongoing inflammation, raising uncertainty about their true activity status and potentially delaying therapeutic intervention. Consequently, a substantial proportion of inflamed yet non-draining tunnels is overlooked by current staging frameworks.
methodsA prospective clinical-ultrasound correlation study was conducted in consecutive patients with HS across three centres. A total of 312 tunnels were evaluated in 84 patients and classified as dermal (type A), dermoepidermal (type B), complex (type C) or subcutaneous (type D) according to ultrasound morphology and depth following Martorell's classification. High-frequency ultrasound (10-18 MHz) with colour Doppler mode (Esaote MyLab
resultsColour Doppler ultrasound detected vascular activity in 91% (284/312) of tunnels. Purulent drainage correlated with Doppler positivity in 100% of cases. Among non-draining tunnels, pain associated with erythema or pain associated with induration showed a clinically meaningful correlation with Doppler activity. Dermal tunnels (type A), despite being universally non-draining, exhibited Doppler positivity in the majority of cases and showed the highest prevalence of pain-erythema combinations (88%).
conclusionsThese findings suggest that an active tunnel in HS may be defined as one presenting purulent drainage or pain associated with erythema or induration. This Doppler-informed definition may allow earlier recognition of inflammatory tunnels, particularly non-draining dermal forms, which could represent a critical therapeutic window, a hypothesis requiring prospective longitudinal confirmation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.