Chronic telogen effluvium is due to a reduction in the variance of anagen duration
August 2010
in “Australasian Journal of Dermatology”
TLDR Chronic hair shedding may be caused by less variation in hair growth times and might stop on its own after several years.
The study from 2010 used a computational model to simulate hair follicle dynamics and suggested that Chronic Telogen Effluvium (CTE) is caused by a reduction in the variance of anagen duration, with these durations being relatively constant at around 16 months. This condition is characterized by acute exacerbations and periodicity in hair shedding but does not lead to significant long-term loss in hair volume. The model indicates that CTE might resolve spontaneously after about a decade, although this lacks clinical data confirmation. The cause of the altered follicular dynamics is unknown, but it may represent a new pathological type of hair shedding in humans, proposing that CTE and Diffuse Cyclic Hair Loss (DCHL) be classified as a new functional type of hair loss. Further clinical data is needed to validate the model.
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