Topical Immunotherapy for Alopecia areata: Re-Evaluation of 139 Cases after an Additional Follow-Up Period of 19 Months

Abstract

Within a group of 139 patients previously studied during treatment for alopecia areata with diphenylcyclopropenone (DCP), hair growth was re-evaluated after a period of 19 months following completion of our previous study. Fifty-four patients treated with DCP had total and 6 had partial but cosmetically acceptable regrowth. Twenty-five patients with total regrowth had stopped DCP treatment for a mean period of 15 months and had not relapsed. Nineteen of 28 patients who still applied DCP were in the process of stepwise discontinuation of treatment. Fifteen patients had subsequently been treated with squaric acid dibutylester (SADBE) after having acquired 'tolerance' to DCP; at the time of re-evaluation 3 of these patients had complete regrowth, and 4 patients had partial but cosmetically acceptable regrowth. Topical immunotherapy with DCP and SADBE had resulted in total regrowth in 57/139 patients (41.0%) and in partial but cosmetically satisfactory regrowth in 10/139 patients (7.2%). The type of involvement and duration of alopecia areata were factors of prognostic significance.