A Study of Serum Ferritin and Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone Levels in Male Patients with Androgenetic Alopecia

Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is a multifactorial disorder expressed by several genes and various environmental factors apart from nutritional and endocrinological factors. Although association of iron deficiency (ID) as well as thyroid disorder has been evaluated in females, this is still an untouched topic as far as male pattern hair loss (MPHL) is concerned. This study tries to establish if any association of MPHL with ID and thyroid dysfunction.

This case-control study comprised 30 consecutive cases of MPHL and equal numbers of age-matched healthy controls attending dermatology outdoor department at a tertiary care hospital. Cases as well as controls were evaluated and screened for the levels of serum ferritin (SF) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). Value of SF (8-388 ng/mL) and TSH (0.358-3.7 uIU/mL) was used as standardized reference.

In cases of AGA, SF level varied from 6.00 to 212.09 ng/mL (mean - 88.30 ng/mL). Whereas controls showed SF levels ranging between 23.67 and 185.05 ng/mL (mean 78.69 ng/mL). The range of TSH level in the case group was 0.379-5.078 uIU/L (mean 2.25 uIU/L), respectively, whereas control group showed serum TSH levels ranging between 0.30 and 4.30 uIU/L (mean - 1.78 uIU/L). Statistically considering two samples of equal variance P (2-tailed) for SF level was found to be 0.424, whereas 0.085 in case of TSH level depicting insignificant association. Spearman's correlations (P = 0.244) between alopecia grade and SF level were found to be statistically insignificant (P = 0.193). Similarly, the P value calculated for the alopecia grade and serum TSH was 0.784, making the correlation between alopecia and serum TSH as insignificant.

The study found no statistically significant difference in the SF level and TSH level of the cases as compared to controls.