Trichoscopy in Alopecia Areata
January 2021
in “
International journal of dermatology, venereology and leprosy sciences
”
TLDR Trichoscopy shows black dots, yellow dots, and empty follicles are common in Alopecia Areata, with broken and exclamation mark hair as typical patterns.
The study "Trichoscopy in alopecia areata" is a cross-sectional and observational study conducted on 100 patients with non-scarring alopecia, specifically Alopecia Areata (AA), from January to December 2020. The study found that 95% of the patients had Patchy Alopecia Areata (PaAA), 2% had Alopecia Universalis (AU), 1% had Alopecia Totalis (AT), and 2% had Ophiasis pattern of AA. The hair pull test was positive in 14% of patients and 61% had a positive hair pull test at the periphery of the patches. The common trichoscopic features were black dots (66%), yellow dots (62%), and empty hair follicles (19%). The characteristic hair patterns were broken hair (81%), exclamation mark hair (87%), and vellus hair (43%). The study concluded that the most prevalent subtype of AA is PaAA, especially in the age group of 21 – 30 years. The characteristic follicular features of AA on Trichoscopy were black dots, yellow dots, and empty hair follicles, and the characteristic hair patterns were broken hair, exclamation mark hair, and vellus hair.