Alopecia Areata
Alopecia areata, sometimes called spot baldness, is a medical condition that affects 0.1to 0.2of humans and causes the loss of hair from some or all parts of the body. Alopecia areata is sometimes called spot baldness due to its tendency to primarily cause hair loss on the scalp, especially during the early stages of alopecia areata. There is a possibility that the condition will spread to the entire scalp or even the entire epidermis, although this only happens in around 1to 2percent of cases, meaning that it occurs in only 0.00001to 0.00002of humans.
Classifications
There are several different classifications of alopecia areata that depend on the body part that the hair loss occurs and the severity of the hair loss. They are as follows:
- Diffuse alopecia areata is the condition when hair is lost more diffusely over the entire scalp.
- Alopecia areata monolocularis is the condition in which there is hair loss in only one spot anywhere on the head. It may also be used to refer to one particular spot of hair loss, even if that is not the only spot that is experiencing hair loss.
- Alopecia areata multilocularis is the condition where there are multiple areas experiencing hair loss and may also be used to refer to a group of alopecia areata monoloculari.
- Alopecia areata barbae is used to refer to alopecia areata that is only experienced on the beard.
- Alopecia totalis is used to refer to alopecia areata that results in the loss of all hair on the scalp.
- Alopecia universalis is used to refer to alopecia areata that results in the complete loss of all body hair, including pubic hair.
Signs and Symptoms
The average initial symptoms of alopecia areata are small bald patches. The skin of the bald patches is free of scars, besides any that were already present due to some other condition/event, and superficially appears to be normal. The patches can be any shape but are predominantly circles and/or ovals. Different areas can exhibit loss and regrowth simultaneously. The disease may even go into a permanent or temporary period of remission in which there is no further hair loss and areas that experienced hair loss may start experiencing renewed hair growth. Other signs and symptoms include
- Areas experiencing hair loss may tingle or even be painful.
- Hair is lost (falls out) very quickly and hair loss is asymmetric in that more hair is lost on one side of the scalp than the other.
- There is the presence of exclamation point hairs. Exclamation point hairs are hairs that decrease in width as the length from the scalp decreases, creating a tapered look characteristic of an exclamation point.
- If you were to attempt to pull out some hair affected by alopecia areata, the hair that is along the edge of bald spots will pull out more easily than hair away from the edge due to the fact that the hair at the edge is already being effected by alopecia areata. This is in contrast to attempting to pull out healthy hair, in which case there should be at most a few hairs pulled out and they should be distributed relatively unevenly across the pulled portion of the scalp.
Alopecia areata is non-communicable. It is also more common in people who have family members that are affected by alopecia areata. This points to it being at least partially controlled by genetics. Strong evidence that genes may increase risk for alopecia areata was found by studying families with two or more affected members. This study identified at least four regions in the genome that are likely to contain alopecia areata genes. The actual cause of hair loss is thought to be caused by an autoimmune disorder. It is believed that the body attacks its own hair follicles and suppresses or even completely stops hair growth.
Treatment
If the the affected region is relatively small then it may be sufficient to keep an eye on the progression of the disease as it often spontaneously regresses followed by the possibility of hair regrowth. If that does not work usually the only other option is to undergo a treatment consisting of corticosteroids in an attempt to take care of the autoimmune portion of the disease. This is often in conjunction with, or followed by, the application of some form of hair growth agent.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com
About the Author
Dr. Beata Rydzik is a writer for Portland\'s Center for Dermatology and Laser Surgery the best in Portland Dermatology treatments.
