A Single-Center Retrospective Study Evaluating the Efficacy of Intravenous Methylprednisolone Pulse Therapy for 113 Patients With Alopecia Areata
TLDR Intravenous methylprednisolone helped over half of alopecia areata patients regrow hair, but many relapsed.
This retrospective study evaluated the efficacy of intravenous methylprednisolone pulse (IVMP) therapy in 113 patients with alopecia areata (AA) treated between 2004 and 2021. The study found that 51.3% of patients achieved complete response (CR), defined as more than 75% hair regrowth, but the overall relapse rate was 38.0% with a mean interval of 8.5 months. Patients with a longer duration of AA before starting IVMP therapy and those with disease progression during treatment had significantly lower CR rates. Additionally, six patients who did not respond well to IVMP or experienced relapses were treated with oral Janus kinase inhibitors (JAKi), and four of them achieved CR, although relapses occurred shortly after discontinuing JAKi. The study concludes that long disease duration and disease progression during IVMP are poor prognostic factors, and JAKi can be a rescue treatment for refractory AA cases.
