Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of patients with alopecia areata seen in dermatology clinic

Aim: Alopecia areata is characterized by nonscarring hair loss and may be determined in several clinical forms. Distinct data's have been reported in national and foreign medical literature about the epidemiology of this disease. The aim of this study was to determine the epidemiologic data's of patients localized in Bolu and compare these data's with literature. Material and Methods: The study population consisted of 144 patients with alopecia areata seen in dermatology outpatient clinic between January 2003 and July 2008. Clinical and demographic parameters such as age, gender, family history, duration, extent and localization, number of attacks, associated diseases and response to the treatment were recorded in all patients. The results were compared with other studies reported in the literature. Results: There were 50 female (35,78 %) and 94 male (65,22 %) patients. The average age of patients was 26,72 years (standard deviation 12,91 years; range 3 to 61 years). According to the classification of the patients into six age subgroups, the highest frequency was observed at the second decade (age range 11-20 years) in female patients, and third decade (age range 21-30 years) in male patients. The diagnosis was alopecia area-ta in 123 patients, alopecia universalis in seven patients, and alopecia totalis in six patients. The most commonly involved area in all patients was scalp, that was followed by beard involvement in male and eyebrow involvement in female patients. Seven patients (one male, 6 female) had tyroiditis and vitiligo as an asscoiated autoimmune disease. Conclusion: Clinical characteristic features and demographic data's of our patients were consistent with other studies reported from Turkey. However these results appeared quite different from the studies published in foreign medical literature. We conclude that our study might contribute to generate epi-demiological data's about alopecia areata in our population.