A Study on Dermoscopic Findings in Alopecia Areata

Abstract

Alopecia areata is a common chronic autoimmune inflammatory and non-scarry disease which involves hair follicles, characterised by the hair  loss  on  the  scalp and other hairy regions of the body. The reported chance of occurrence is 2% in their lifetime of an individual, with much higher probability in younger individuals aged below 30years. Depending on the ethnic background and the worldwide regional difference, the prevalence of alopecia areata (AA) varies from 0.1 to 0.2%, with a  calculated lifetime risk of 2%. Recent studies on animal models have proposed collapse of hair follicle immune privilege in association with enhanced MHC class I expression and organ-specific autoimmune reactions against hair follicle autoantigens induced by NKG2D+ cytotoxic CD8+ T cells as the probable mechanism for the development of Alopecia areata. In the current study, the average age of the study population was 25.1 ± 11.75, which was ranging between 3 to 46 years. But the majority of the study participants were in their second decade and third decade of life. There was a slight male preponderance, as 60% of the participants were male. The present  study includes to observe the clinical and dermoscopic findings in Alopecia Areata patients.