Abstract
Objective: Alopecia areata (AA) is a common, chronic disorder presents as patchy loss of hair on the scalp, beard area, eyebrows and other parts of body. Trichoscopy, dermoscopy of hair, is a non-invasive diagnostic tool which helps in visualization of subsurface features. Diagnosis of AA is easy, however, diffuse alopecia, alopecia on the eyebrows, patients presenting with total loss of hair can pose problem in identifying this condition. Trichoscopy, showing particular and specific patterns, can be utilized to diagnose this condition. Objective of our study was to identify the specific patterns of trichoscopy AA. Methods: Fifty patients with AA were included in the study. Dermlite 3 dermoscope (10X magnifications) with polarized light was employed in the study. Results: A total of 50 patients were evaluated and trichoscopy showed yellow dots, exclamation mark hairs, broken hairs, black dots, short vellous hairs in 25 (50%), 30 (60%), 15 (30%), 10 (20%), 05 (10%) patients respectively. Conclusion: Trichoscopy demonstrates definitive and specific patterns in AA. It helps not only in diagnosis of AA but also identifies activity and severity of AA. Yellow dots were observed in every stage of AA and black dots, exclamation mark hairs, broken hairs were demonstrated in active disease.
Highlights
IntroductionClinical diagnosis of AA is not difficult; sometimes it throws diagnostic challenges
Alopecia areata (AA) characterized by patchy loss of hair due to abrupt arrest of hair cycle and formation of fractured cadaverized hairs, miniaturized nanogen hairs, short re-growing vellus hairs, dystrophic and telogen hairs [1,2].Clinical diagnosis of AA is not difficult; sometimes it throws diagnostic challenges
Yellow dots were observed in every stage of AA and black dots, exclamation mark hairs, broken hairs were demonstrated in active disease
Summary
Clinical diagnosis of AA is not difficult; sometimes it throws diagnostic challenges. It is impossible to know the activity and severity of AA on clinical examination by naked eyes. Trichoscopy reveals specific patterns in AA and these patterns can be utilized to diagnose, to know the severity and disease activity of AA. The trichoscopy findings can vary depending on the stage, site and severity of the disease [1,2,3]. Black dots (BDs) and exclamation mark hairs (EMH) on trichoscopy are the most specific findings in AA and correlate well with disease activity whereas yellow dots (YDs) are seen in all the stages of the disease and correlate with disease severity [4,5]. Our objective was to evaluate the trichoscopic patterns of AA
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