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Hydroxychloroquine treatment for Alopecia Universalis: Report of six cases
Author(s) -
Akdogan Neslihan,
ErsoyEvans Sibel
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
australasian journal of dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.67
H-Index - 53
eISSN - 1440-0960
pISSN - 0004-8380
DOI - 10.1111/ajd.13391
Subject(s) - hydroxychloroquine , medicine , alopecia universalis , refractory (planetary science) , dermatology , hair loss , surgery , covid-19 , disease , physics , astrobiology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Recent reports indicate that hydroxychloroquine is a potential new treatment option for alopecia universalis; thus, we aimed to report on the safety and efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in 6 patients with refractory alopecia universalis that were treated with 400 mg/d continuously for ≥6 months. The treatment outcome was retrospectively evaluated using the Severity of Alopecia Tool (SALT), and at the end of 6 months, patients with a ≥50% decrease in the SALT score were considered as strong responders, a 5%‐50% decrease as intermediate responders and a <5% decrease as non‐responders. The present findings indicate that hydroxychloroquine is not an effective treatment since in 5 of the 6 patients it was discontinued at the end of 6 months due to lack of hair regrowth, whereas only a 6‐year‐old boy responded with a SALT score change of 8% after the 12th month.