Correlation of Trichoscopic Findings with Disease Severity in Androgenetic Alopecia

Objective: To study the trichoscopic findings of androgenetic alopecia and correlate them with disease severity in tertiary care hospital. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Dermatology, PNS Shifa Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan, from Jun to Dec 2022. Study design: Cross-sectional study. Methodology: In all, 150 individuals between ages of 18 and 70, of either gender, were enrolled in the study with androgenetic alopecia clinically diagnosed by consultant dermatologist. A thorough physical, systemic, & dermatological examination was performed on each patient. In males with androgenetic alopecia,severity of hair loss was assessed using the Hamilton-Norwood scale, while in females with androgenetic alopecia, Ludwig stages were used. Using a handheld dermatoscope (HEINE DELTA 20T) at 10x magnification, trichoscopic examination was performed. Results: The mean age of the patient was 32.7± 11.3 years. The majority in our study, 25(26.3%) of 95 male AGA cases, fell into H-N Grade III. 26(47.2%) of the 55 female AGA patients were in Ludwig stage I, which was most prevalent stage in our study. All of variables, with exception of the brown & white peripilar signs, showed a positive connection between trichoscopic findings & disease severity in male AGA. All trichoscopic results were found to be positively correlated with disease severity in female AGA. Conclusion: Trichoscopy is a useful, practical, easy-to-use equipment for clinical setup since it can aid in early diagnosis of AGA by seeing changes in hair follicle diameter. It also helps in determining how severe condition is. According to this study, scalp biopsies are not ...