Journal Club- Non-cicatricial Alopecia: Diagnosis Made Easy - Video
Overview
The study aimed to correlate the clinical and trichoscopic features of non-cicatricial alopecia (NCA) and to evaluate the effectiveness of trichoscopy in aiding the final diagnosis, particularly in clinically ambiguous cases.
After obtaining approval from the ethics committee, 329 patients with alopecia attending the Department of Dermato-Venereology and Leprology were enrolled in the study.
Trichoscopy was performed using a non-polarised eScope at 20x magnification. Light microscopy and skin punch biopsy were carried out wherever indicated. Data analysis was conducted. The association between non-cicatricial alopecia and other study parameters was assessed using the Chi-square test; Fisher’s exact test was applied where appropriate for small sample sizes.
The results showed that alopecia areata was the most common cause of NCA constituting 39.2%, followed by telogen effluvium (TE) and chronic TE about 15.8% and androgenetic alopecia which was 15.2%. It was also seen that Black dots, yellow dots, short vellus hair, thin hair, hair diameter diversity and exclamation mark hairs showed a highly significant association with different subtypes of NCA. Trichoscopy aided in the diagnosis of 28.2% unclear cases of NCA.
The findings highlighted the clinical utility of trichoscopy in improving diagnostic accuracy. However, limitations included single-observer interpretation and a lack of diagnostic validation against a gold standard in all cases. Therefore, the authors believed that clinically, trichoscopy serves as a valuable first-line adjunctive tool, particularly in ambiguous presentations.
Reference: Shah VH, Rambhia K, Singh R. Non-cicatricial alopecia: Diagnosis made easy. Indian J Postgrad Dermatol. doi: 10.25259/IJPGD_49_2026
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