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Beard alopecia areata: a multicentre review of 55 patients
D Saceda-Corralo1, R Grimalt2, P Fernández-Crehuet3
1Dermatology Department, Ramon y Cajal Hospital, Madrid, Spain.
Background:
Alopecia areata on the beard area (BAA) is a common clinical manifestation, but there are no studies about its characteristics.
Objective:
To describe the epidemiology, comorbidities, clinical presentation, evolution, diagnostic findings and therapeutic choices in a series of patients with BAA.
Methods:
This retrospective multicentre review included patients diagnosed with BAA as the first and unique clinical manifestation with at least 12 months of follow-up. Diagnosis was performed based on the typical clinical features. Extra-beard involvement was monitored in all cases.
Results:
Overall, 55 male patients with a mean age of 39.1 years (range 20-74) were included. Twenty-five patients (45.5%) developed alopecia of the scalp during follow-up and more than 80% of cases appeared in the first 12.4 months. Clinical presentation of AA on the scalp was patchy AA (less than 5 patches) (52%), multifocal AA (28%), AA totalis (12%) and AA universalis (8%). Multivariate analysis revealed a trend of association between scalp involvement and family history of AA without statistical significance.
Conclusions:
According to this study, BAA may progress to scalp AA in a significant number of patients (45.5% of the patients with a follow-up interval of at least 12 months). In the group of patients who developed scalp AA, 80% of them did it within the first 12 months, so follow-up of patients with BAA is highly encouraged.
