Comorbid autoimmune diseases in patients with vitiligo: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND

Few large-scale studies have quantified the burden of comorbid autoimmune diseases in patients with vitiligo.

OBJECTIVE

We sought to determine the prevalence of comorbid autoimmune diseases in patients with vitiligo.

METHODS

We conducted a manual chart review on a cohort of 1873 patients with vitiligo seen between January 2002 and October 2012 at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, MI. Patients were excluded if they had fewer than 2 dermatology notes (N = 595) or if they were never given a diagnosis of vitiligo by a dermatologist (N = 180).

RESULTS

Of 1098 patients with vitiligo, nearly 20% had at least 1 comorbid autoimmune disease. Compared with the general US population, we found a higher prevalence of thyroid disease (12.9%, P < .001), alopecia areata (3.8%, P < .001), inflammatory bowel disease (0.9%, P = .046), pernicious anemia (0.5%, P = .007), systemic lupus erythematosus (0.3%, P = .048), Guillain-Barre syndrome (0.3%, P < .001), discoid lupus (0.2%, P = .003), linear morphea (0.2%, P < .001), myasthenia gravis (0.2%, P = .002), and Sjögren syndrome (0.2%, P = .011).

LIMITATIONS: The study lacked a control group. This was a single-institution study with possible selection bias, and thus the findings may not be representative of the overall population of patients with vitiligo.

CONCLUSIONS

We observed a high prevalence of comorbid autoimmune diseases in patients with vitiligo and report several new associations.