Clinical predictors of outcome in vitiligo

The significant inter-patient variability in progression, and response to therapy makes it a great challenge for the physician to predict the outcome of vitiligo at the very outset. Subjective factors like stress, pregnancy, sunburn and illness have been identified as aggravating factors for vitiligo. However, a few studies have evaluated the statistical significance of objective clinical parameters in predicting the outcome of vitiligo. Our retrospective analysis of 199 consecutive patients with vitiligo who presented to our OPD was aimed at evaluation of these objective clinical parameters utilizing a standard proforma. Patients already on treatment, and those with duration of disease less than 6 months were excluded from the study. Progression was defined as an increase in size or number of lesions in the 3 months prior to presentation. In all 76.9% patients had progression of vitiligo. The clinical parameters significantly associated with progression were a positive family history (p=0.027), mucosal involvement (p=0.032), Koebner's phenomenon (p=0.036) and nonsegmental vitiligo (p=0.033). Thrichrome sign, leucotrichia, longer duration and higher age at onset did not correlate significantly with progression. The one significant observation that we found to have the poor prognostic implication in vitiligo is the presence of mucosal vitiligo. The clinical prediction of disease progression at the outset enables the physician to set realistic treatment goals and optimize the therapeutic regimen for the individual patient.