Topical immunotherapy in alopecia areata: anamnestic and clinical criteria of prognostic significance.

BACKGROUND

Topical immunotherapy of alopecia areata (AA) is an effective but time-consuming treatment with unknown long-term risks.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to identify criteria which allow a selection of patients with a good prognosis for topical immunotherapy with diphencyprone.

METHODS

The anamnestic and clinical data of 50 successfully and 55 unsuccessfully treated patients were compared by the Mann-Whitney test.

RESULTS

Five factors were found to be of prognostic significance: type of AA (p < or = 0.001), presence of nail changes (p < or = 0.001), duration of AA before treatment (p < or = 0.005), age at onset (p < or = 0.01) and association with atopic eczema (p < or = 0.02).

CONCLUSION

A selection of AA patients who are likely to respond to topical immunotherapy is possible on the basis of anamnestic and clinical data.