Evaluation of Dermatoscopic Findings of Alopecia Areata and Tinea Capitis in Pediatric Patients
February 2022
in “
Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology
”
TLDR Dermatoscopy can quickly help distinguish between alopecia areata and tinea capitis in children.
The study evaluated dermatoscopic findings in pediatric patients with alopecia areata (AA) and tinea capitis (TC) to aid in distinguishing between these conditions. It involved 34 children with TC and 21 with AA. The most common dermatoscopic finding in TC was comma hairs (97.1%), while in AA, it was exclamation mark hairs (61.9%). Although both conditions shared the feature of dystrophic and broken hairs, these were more prevalent in TC (88.2%) compared to AA (23.8%). The study highlighted the potential of dermatoscopy as a rapid diagnostic tool alongside traditional methods.