Incidence Rates of Infections, Malignancies, Thromboembolism, and Cardiovascular Events in an Alopecia Areata Cohort from a US Claims Database

The study analyzed data from 8784 patients with Alopecia Areata (AA), including 599 with alopecia totalis or alopecia universalis (AT/AU), and compared them to 26,352 patients without AA. It found that AA patients had a higher incidence rate (IR) of herpes simplex infection than the non-AA cohort, with rates per 1000 person-years of 19.5 and 9.7 respectively. However, the rates of other outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease, malignancy, and thromboembolism, were similar between the two cohorts. Patients with AT/AU generally had higher rates of outcome events than those without AT/AU. The study suggests that it may be beneficial to screen for such conditions upon AA diagnosis for earlier treatment intervention.