The clinical and demographic characteristics of alopecia areata patients

In this study, our aim was to determine clinical and the demographical characteristics of the patients with alopecia areata. In the study, 100 patients who received alopecia areata diagnosis with ages raging from 2 to 52 and who applied to the polyclinic of Dicle University Medical Faculty Dermatology Department between October and November 2009 were evaluated.The patients taken under evaluations were recorded for age, gender, alopecia involvement areas, attack history, the duration of the present attack, the onset age of the disease, the localization region in the scalp hair, the existence of nevus flammeus, the presence of the subjective symptom, nail involvement, emotional stress history, family history, and the atopy history in the patient and family. The percentage of the hair loss of the patients with scalp hair involvement was assessed according to the SALT (Severity of Alopecia Tool) score. The data were assessed in SPSS 16.0 program and analyzed with x² (Chi Square) statistical method.Of 100 patients included into the study 44 (44%) were female and 56 (56%) male. The male\female ratio was 1.2:1, mean age was 19.19±10.93 years and 97% of the patients were below the age of 40 years. Alopecia areata was present in 90 (90%) of the patients, alopecia totalis in 5 (5%), alopecia universalis in 5 (5%). Sixty four percent of patients, the age of the disease onset was detected below the age of 20 years. Mostly, the scalp hair (88%) involvement was seen in the patients. Most frequently patchy pattern (74.3%) was seen in patients with scalp hair involvement. The involvement in the scalp hair was seen most frequently in the occipital region (82.9%). In 77.2% of the patients, mild involvement in the scalp hair and in 22.8% of the patients, severe involvement was detected. A significant relationship between the severity of the disease in scalp hair and gender and the disease onset period was not found. Nevus flammeus was seen in 10 patients (11.4%) with scalp hair involvement. There was complaint of pruritus (82.7%) mostly in the patients with subjective complaints. The nail involvement was detected to be 43%, mostly as the pitting (39.5%) and the longitudinal ridging (39.5%). A significant relationship between the disease severity in scalp hair and the nail involvement was not found. There was family history presence in 22% of the patients. A significant relationship between the family history and the onset period of the disease and the disease severity in scalp hair was not determined. There was atopy history in 5% of the patients. A significant relationship was not detected between the atopy history in patients and disease severity in scalp hair.The results of our study were found to be consistent with the clinical and demographic data carried out previously. Unlike the literature, the age of the disease onset was detected at high percentage (64%) below the age of 20 years, whereas the atopy history was in low percentage (5%).Keywords: Alopecia areata, demographic characteristics, clinical characteristics