Trichoscopic findings to determine disease activity in patients with alopecia areata

Dr. Abel Francis; Dr. Nithu B Johns; Dr. S Criton

Volume : IX, Issue : VII, July - 2019

Trichoscopic findings to determine disease activity in patients with alopecia areata

Dr. Abel Francis, Dr. Nithu B Johns, Dr. S Criton

Abstract :

Aim: To assess the role of trichoscopy in determining the disease activity of patients with alopecia areata (AA). Methods This is a comparative descriptive study conducted in Department of Dermatology, Amala Institute of Medical sciences , Thrissur for a period of one and a half years, on patients who were diagnosed clinically as AA. Hair pull test was done on them to find out whether the disease is stable or active. Trichoscopy was done on each patch of these patients to find out the characteristic features of AA, and hair pull test and trichoscopy were compared in order to assess the disease activity of AA. Sample size was 128 patients. Results In our study out of 252 patches, yellow dots(YDs) were present in 97.2%, black dots in 79.76% , exclamation hair in 60.71% , vellus hair in 38.49% , kinked hair in 28.57%, oken hairs in 53.17%, white hairs in 60.71% and split hairs in 38.49% . Hair pull test was positive in 155 patches while it was negative in 97 patches. Conclusion Trichoscopy is an important tool in the present scenario as it is simple, non invasive and helps in assessing the disease activity.