Vitiligo in children and adolescents: association with thyroid dysfunction

The clinical characteristics of vitiligo in children and adolescents with an emphasis on thyroid dysfunction have only been reported in a few studies.

The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of children and adolescents with vitiligo and compare the incidence of thyroid dysfunction between them and controls without vitiligo at the same age.

A retrospective analysis of 324 Korean children and adolescents with vitiligo was performed. The results of thyroid function screening tests in them (n = 254) were compared with controls (n = 122).

Of the total 324 children and adolescents with vitiligo, vitiligo vulgaris was the most common type (42.3%) and the most commonly involved site was the face (54.6%). A total of 15 of 254 (5.9%) patients screened for thyroid function were diagnosed with thyroid disease (four had Hashimoto's thyroiditis; two, Graves' disease; seven, subclinical hypothyroidism; and two, subclinical hyperthyroidism). None of the 50 patients with segmental vitiligo showed any thyroid dysfunction (P = 0.047). There was no significant difference in the incidence of thyroid disease between children and adolescents with vitiligo and the control group, in which seven of 122 (5.7%) showed thyroid dysfunction.

In this study, we demonstrated the characteristics of children and adolescents with vitiligo and also observed no significant difference in the incidence of thyroid disease between children and adolescents with vitiligo and the control group.