Not Just Thinning: A Case of Alopecia Universalis After Mild COVID-19

    May 2022 in “ JAAD Case Reports ”
    Celine Phong, Arash Babadjouni, Cristina Nguyen, Christina N. Kraus, Natasha Atanaskova Mesinkovska
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    TLDR A woman lost all her hair after mild COVID-19, but it started to regrow after treatment with a specific medication.
    The document presents a case of a 28-year-old woman who developed rapid-onset alopecia universalis, a condition characterized by complete hair loss, one month after a mild SARS-CoV-2 infection. Despite treatments including intralesional triamcinolone injections, methylprednisolone dose pack, and platelet-rich plasma injections to the scalp, she experienced near-complete hair loss. Treatment with oral tofacitinib 5 mg twice daily was initiated, which initially did not halt the progression of the hair loss, but at the 10-month follow-up resulted in fine, diffuse regrowth, with a Severity of Alopecia Tool (SALT) score <5%. At her 16-month follow-up, she had no hair loss, and the SALT score was 0. The case raises questions about the role of inflammation in diffuse hair loss following COVID-19 and suggests that further studies are needed to understand the relationship between alopecia areata exacerbations and COVID-19.
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       61 upvotes 8 years ago
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      in Treatment  1 upvotes 1 year ago
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       6 upvotes 6 years ago
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      in Chat  161 upvotes 5 months ago
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