Hair and Scalp Dermatoscopy (Trichoscopy)

The document from 2019 details the use of trichoscopy, a noninvasive diagnostic tool for hair and scalp disorders, highlighting its advantages over traditional methods. Trichoscopy provides detailed visualization of hair and scalp features, aiding in the diagnosis, treatment monitoring, and prognosis of conditions like alopecia areata (AA) and discoid lupus. It was shown that AA patients monitored with trichoscopy required fewer steroid injections and had a lower risk of cutaneous atrophy than those monitored with the hair pull test. The document categorizes trichoscopic signs and emphasizes that a single sign is not usually diagnostic on its own. It also describes the evaluation of various hair loss types, the importance of examining hair shafts, and eyebrow examination. Trichoscopy can reveal perifollicular erythema, scaling patterns, hyperpigmentation, vascular patterns, and hair shaft characteristics, which are crucial for diagnosing conditions like androgenetic alopecia, telogen effluvium, trichotillomania, and tinea capitis, as well as congenital syndromes like monilethrix and uncombable hair syndrome.