The Role of Hair Follicle Counts and Ratios in the Histopathological Assessment of Androgenic Alopecia, Alopecia Areata and Telogen Effluvium: Does Counting 'Count'?
March 2023
in “Human Pathology”
TLDR Hair follicle counts and ratios are helpful in diagnosing hair loss types, but should be used with other specific features for accurate diagnosis.
The document discusses the role of hair follicle counts and ratios in diagnosing non-scarring alopecia, particularly androgenetic alopecia (AGA), alopecia areata (AA), and telogen effluvium (TE). The authors conducted a literature review of English language studies on the histopathological assessment of horizontal scalp biopsies for non-scarring alopecia. The results indicate that follicular counts and ratios are useful diagnostic tools, but they should be used in conjunction with the specific morphologic features of each alopecia subtype to make a confident diagnosis.
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