Investigation of Ocular Alterations in Patients with Alopecia Areata and Its Correlation with the Severity of Disease

Introduction & Alopecia areata is the most common skin disease that presents as areas without hair and may affect any hair bearing area of body. Different reports about ocular alterations in patients with alopecia areata are presented. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ocular alterations in patients with this disease. In this descriptive - analytic study, 251 patients with alopecia areata were studied. Patients data including age, sex, age of disease onset,first site of involvment, disease duration, number of relapses,family history of atopy, and disease severity were recorded. Eye examination by an eye specialist was performed in all patients, and results were recorded. Findings were analyzed with SPSS 16 software, and using one way ANOVA and? 2 statisti-cal tests. The mean age of patients in this study was 24.86 ± 5.92 years. Of the 251 patients, 200 (79.9%) had no ocular alterations and 51 (20.1%) showed visual alterations. Most of ocular alterations observed in this study were pigmentary changes of retina seen in 20 patients (8%). There was no significant correlation between disease severity and ocular changes. The results showed that ocular alterations were seen in some of patients with alopecia areata and not correlated with disease severity, mean patient age, patient gender, family history of atopy and allergy, the mean age of disease onset, mean number of relapses, and first site of involvment. (Sci J Hamadan Univ Med Sci 2014; 21 (3): 225-230)