Background:
@EN Alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis are uncommon and developed from 5-10% of the patients with alopecia areata.
@ES Objective:
@EN The authors performed a study for clinical observations and the effects of treatments of alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis in order that this study may contribute to further studies and treatments of them.
@ES Methods:
@EN The author performed a clinical study of 42 patients with alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis retrospectively in order to evaluate the clinical manifestations and the effects of treatments from January 1984 to March 1992 at the
deparment
of
Dermatology, College of Medicine, Chung Ang University.
@ES Results:
@EN 1. The incidence of alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis was 6.7%(42/623) among the alopecia patients who were occupied 1.4%(623/44,839)among the all new dermatologic out patients. 2. The age distributions at the onset of disease showed
a
peak
incidence at an age of less than 15 years (52.4%, 22/42) and the average age was 19.7% years. 3. The laboratory findings showed decreased total T cell count in 1 case(1/10), reversed T4/T8 ratio in 6 cases(6/10), positive anti-thyroglobulin
antibody in
3 cases(3/11), and abnormal serum levels of testosterone, estradiol and progesterone in 5 cases(5/22), 2 cases(2/14) and 8 cases(8/13), respectively, 4. The effects in the group treated with topical immunotherapy with DPCP(2,
3-diphenylcyclopropenone)
or DNCB(2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene) revealed no significant different difference from those in the group treated with an intralesional injection of triamcinolone acetonide. 5. The response rates to treatment were markedly higher in the patients
with
alopecia totalis than alopecia universalis, in cases where the duration of disease was less than 5 years, and in the patients associated with psychologic stress.
@ES Conclusion:
@EN These results suggested that alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis frequently occur in children, and some of them were associated with cell mediated immunity defects, autoantibody and endocrine factors. The patients with alopecia totalis,
with
short duration of disease and associated with emotional stress showed better therapeutic responses. (Kor J Dermatol 1993 ; 31(3) : 341-348)
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