Clinical Approach to Focal Hairless Patch with Dermoscopy

March 2012 in “ Journal of The American Academy of Dermatology ”

TLDR Dermoscopy helps diagnose different hair loss conditions, and characteristics vary among ethnicities and individual cases.

The document presents findings from several studies on hair loss conditions. One study assessed hair density and caliber in 45 white and Asian females with female pattern hair loss (FPHL) using a folliscope. It found that white females had a significantly higher hair density on the occipital scalp, while Asian females had significantly thicker hair diameters in both frontal and occipital areas. Another case reported herpes zoster alopecia in a 7-year-old male, which resolved completely within 6 months after treatment. A third study investigated the use of dermoscopy in 142 patients with focal hairless patches, identifying characteristic dermoscopic findings for diseases such as alopecia areata, trichotillomania, tinea capitis, discoid lupus erythematosus, and lichen planopilaris, proposing a dermoscopic algorithm for diagnosis. Lastly, a clinicopathologic observation of temporal triangular alopecia (TTA) in 12 Korean patients showed that most cases were non-inflammatory and non-scarring, with only 2 out of 7 patients treated with topical Minoxidil showing mild improvement.

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research Dermoscopic Approach to a Small Round to Oval Hairless Patch on the Scalp

41 citations, January 2014 in “Annals of Dermatology”

Dermoscopic examination helps diagnose different types of hair loss conditions by showing specific patterns.