Association of Alopecia Areata with Atopic Dermatitis and Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria
March 2018
in “
Allergy and asthma proceedings
”
TLDR People with alopecia areata often have higher rates of allergies and autoimmune diseases.
This study identified clinical characteristics and comorbid conditions in 1751 Israeli patients with alopecia areata (AA) compared to 3502 age- and sex-matched controls. The AA group had higher blood eosinophil counts and a significantly higher prevalence of allergic rhinitis, asthma, atopic dermatitis (AD), food allergy, and autoimmune diseases. The odds ratio (OR) for having any autoimmune disease was 4.72, and for chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) with AA, it was 6.15. Additionally, patients with both AA and CSU had higher rates of allergic rhinitis and AD. The study estimated the prevalence of AA in the Israeli population to be approximately 0.8%, highlighting a novel finding of high food allergy and CSU prevalence in AA patients.
