Background: Athough alopecia areata (AA) usually starts with focal lesions of hair loss and then presents several different clinical forms, AA may begin as diffuse hair loss. We examined 9 female patients who presented with acute, diffuse and total hair loss of the scalp and took a similar clinical course with a favorable prognosis. Objective: To categorize such cases as a new subgroup of diffuse alopecia. Methods: We studied 9 patients who showed acute, diffuse and total hair loss of the scalp within 1 month after their first visit to our hospital by comparing their clinical course, laboratory tests and histopathological findings with those of common, patchy AA, alopecia totalis or alopecia universalis. Results: None of the patients had a background of systemic diseases or telogen effluvium. All the patients were female, and 8 of the 9 cases recovered cosmetically acceptable hair growth within 6 months regardless of steroid administration. The histology of he lesions was indistinguishable from that of AA except for a remarkable eosinophilic infiltrate. Conclusions: These cases can be categorized as a new subtype of inflammatory noncicatricial alopecia that is characterized by a marked female predominance, tissue eosinophilia and uniquely short clinical course. We suggest to name it ‘acute diffuse and total alopecia of the female scalp (ADTAFS)’.

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2002
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