Frontal fibrosing alopecia. A study of 12 cases in Argentina

Abstract

Frontal fibrosing alopecia (FFA) is a primary scarring alopecia that typically affects postmenopausal women and is characterized by the recession of the frontal-parieto-temporal hairline with total or partial loss of eyebrows. It is an entity of chronic course with uncertain evo-lution. There are currently no internationally validated clinical-prog-nostic evaluation criteria, although a classification for this purpose has recently been proposed based on a large multicentric casuistry.

Objective: To describe the clinical and demographic characteristics of patients diagnosed with FFA assessed in two Argentine centers.

Design: Retrospective study of 12 patients with FFA evaluated be-tween August 2015 and August 2017 at the Dermatology Service of HIGA Eva Perón (San Martín, Provincia de Buenos Aires) and a private medical center (General Pico, La Pampa).

Materials and methods: The inclusion criteria was the presence of frontal-parietol-temporal recession of the hair implantation line asso-ciated to one of the following: characteristic changes of FFA (perifollicular erythema and hyperkeratosis and closure of follicular openings) and/or scalp biopsy compatible with lymphocytic scar alopecia.

Results: Twelve patients were evaluated in 2 years. All female, meno-pausal and with average age of diagnosis 69 years. Total or partial eye-brows involvement was observed in 100% of cases. The most frequent clinical pattern was the linear pattern (75%) followed by diffuse pattern (17%). All were treated with 5-alpha reductase inhibitors and top-ical minoxidil and 42% received periodic intralesional triamcinolone.

Conclusions: The cohort studied presented a mean age of diagnosis higher than the reported, but with clinical characteristics similar to those published in the international literature.

Limitations: The retrospective nature of the study and the size of the sample.