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Review
. 2018 Aug;16(8):992-999.
doi: 10.1111/ddg.13601.

Frontal fibrosing alopecia - review of recent case reports and case series in PubMed

Eva Maria Valesky  1 , Manuela Denise Maier  1 , Stefan Kippenberger  1 , Roland Kaufmann  1 , Markus Meissner  1
Affiliations
Review

Frontal fibrosing alopecia - review of recent case reports and case series in PubMed

Eva Maria Valesky et al. J Dtsch Dermatol Ges. 2018 Aug.

Abstract

Background: In his initial publication of frontal fibrosing alopecia (FFA) in 1994, Steven Kossard included six postmenopausal women. A type of cicatricial alopecia, FFA is clinically characterized by frontotemporal hairline recession and loss of eyebrows. In recent years, there has been an increasing number of case reports of FFA in both premenopausal women and men.

Study objective: Review and analysis of the literature on FFA with regard to epidemiology, associated disorders, disease presentation, diagnosis and treatment.

Methods and material: We conducted a Pubmed database search for case reports and case series on FFA. Overall, we reviewed and analyzed data from 68 articles, including 932 patients. Apart from epidemiological data such as age, gender or ethnicity, we also assessed other aspects such as predilection sites, associated skin lesions, comorbidities, drugs and treatment response as well as the diagnostic significance of autoantibodies.

Results: While we were able to confirm and more accurately define some of the data published in the literature, we were unable to reproduce certain assumptions that had previously been made. The high coincidence of FFA and thyroid disease we found in our analysis is particularly significant.

Conclusions: The present study provides the most comprehensive review to date of published cases of FFA.

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References

    1. Kossard S. Postmenopausal frontal fibrosing alopecia scarring alopecia in a pattern distribution. Arch Dermatol 1994; 130: 770-4.
    1. Wagner G, Meyer V, Sachse MM. Frontal fibrosing alopecia. Hautarzt 2016; 67(11): 891-6.
    1. Stockmeier M, Kunte C, Sander CA et al. Frontale fibrosierende Alopezie Kossard bei einem Mann. Hautarzt 2002; 53(6): 409-11.
    1. Chen W, Kigitsidou E, Prucha H et al. Male frontal fibrosing alopecia with generalised hair loss. Australas J Dermatol 2014; 55(2): 37-9.
    1. Nusbaum BP, Nusbaum AG. Frontal fibrosing alopecia in a man: Results of follicular unit test grafting. Dermatologic Surg 2010; 36(6): 959-62.

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