Trichoscopic findings in alopecia areata and their relation to disease activity, severity and clinical subtype in T urkish patients
August 2013
in “Australasian Journal of Dermatology”
TLDR Certain scalp patterns can indicate the severity and activity of hair loss in Turkish alopecia patients.
In the 2013 study involving 39 Turkish patients with alopecia areata (AA) and 309 with other types of alopecia, trichoscopic examinations revealed no significant relationship between AA subtype and trichoscopic findings. However, certain trichoscopic patterns were associated with AA severity and activity. Severe AA was linked to honeycomb hyperpigmentation, cumulus-like clustered white dots, white dots, and black dotted pigmentation, while mild AA was associated with exclamation mark hairs, which also indicated active disease. Atypical red vessels and white dots were negatively related to disease activity. The study introduced new trichoscopic signs for AA, including clustered white dots, multi-hair follicular units, hidden hairs, and black dotted pigmentation, which could help in diagnosing and predicting AA's course. The study's limitations were the small sample size and lack of histopathological confirmation for the new signs.
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