Hirsutism in patients with lichen planopilaris (LPP)

Abstract

Background Lichen planopilaris (LPP) is a form of autoimmune scarring alopecia with unknown etiology. Androgenic hormones may have a role in progression of LPP especially in menopausal women which could be associated with hirsutism. Therefore, we investigated the frequency of hirsutism as one of the clinical manifestations of androgen excess in women with LPP. Patients and methods This cross-sectional study was done during 5 years on 60 female LPP patients. Patients’ data were age, age-onset of LPP, menstrual status, body mass index (BMI), presence or absence of hirsutism, age-onset and location of hirsutism and history of nonfollicular lichen planus. Results Patients’ mean age was 46.53±10.03 years. Mean of age-onset of LPP in women was 41.35±10.48 years. Hirsutism was detected in 28.3% of cases. The mean of age-onset of LPP was 30.47±9.11 in women with hirsutism. Less than half of LPP patients (48.3%) were nonmenopausal women, of whom 41.4% had irregular menstrual periods. Overweight and obesity was detected in 43 (43.71%) of LPP cases. Age-onset of LPP in menopausal women was significantly higher than nonmenopausal women (P <0.001). Frequency of obesity in the menopausal and nonmenopausal groups was not significantly different. Conclusion More than a quarter of LPP patients had hirsutism. Due to high frequency of hirsutism in Iranian women, our findings do not show higher frequency of hirsutism in LPP cases compared with other women.