Abstract
Background: Alopecia areata (AA) is an unpredictable, recurrent, satisfiable, long-term skin disease with patchy hair loss. The pathogenesis of AA entails direct and indirect monocracies on hair follicles, and several factors such as vitamin D deficiency have been reported to contribute to the development of AA as well as deepen the existing condition. This is because Vitamin D is involved in issues to do with immunity and hair growth which may be central to the progress of AA. The purpose of this research will be to see whether or not AA patients who are deficient of vitamin D were able to get positive results involving vitamin D analogues for the growth of hair.
Aim: To ascertain whether Vitamin D deficiency plays an etiologic role in the etiology of Alopecia Areata and evaluate the role of Vitamin D derivatives in the treatment of AA.
Methods: The present study was a prospective, interventional trial performed on adults who had clinically and/or histologically proven AA. Patients were given Vitamin D analogues including calcipotriol or calcitriol over a period of 12 weeks and the other group was given placebo or standard care, such as corticosteroids. Primary end points were the variations in hair regrowth assessed by the SALT score. Secondary end points were serum Vitamin D, clinical efficacy and tolerability. The data were collected at the pre-intervention phase, at the initial 6 weeks, and after the 12 weeks. Pair wise t test were used for comparing the pre and post treatment levels of Vitamin D, while correlation of Vitamin D and clinical improvement was done using Pearson’s coefficient.
Results: In a cross sectional study, authors also found lower serum Vitamin D at baseline in AA patients compared to healthy controls. The symptomatic and laboratory profile of patients after Vitamin D analogue treatment included a highly significant increase in serum Vitamin D levels and hair improvement; 40% of patients had an improvement of at least 50% in the SALT score. The control group did not show any substantial or no change at all. Treatment with vitamin D analogues caused only slight side-effects which were reported in this study as follows
Conclusion: The article shows that AA patients are often deficient in Vitamin D and when treated with Vitamin D analogues their hair regrowth improved a great deal. These outcomes imply that Vitamin D analogs possibly can improve the treatment of AA, especially in Vitamin D-deficient individuals. Vitamin D supplementation should be incorporated into the standard care of AA and large scale trials are needed to evaluate the long-term risks and benefits of Vitamin D derivatives in the treatment of AA.
Keywords: Alopecia Areata, Vitamin D deficiency, Vitamin D analogues, immune modulation, hair regrowth, Severity of Alopecia Tool (SALT), autoimmune disease, clinical trial.