Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Alopecia Universalis


HPI: The patient is a 77-year-old woman who was seen for alopecia, which has been present for about eight months now. This followed chemotherapy for nonhodgkin’s lymphoma. She has a history of alopecia areata decades ago which resolved on its own.

O/E: The examination shows that this patient has alopecia universalis. She has a few eyelashes but no eyebrows, no body hair, no scalp hair.


DX: Alopecia universalis following chemotherapy. This is unusual. There is one report of alopecia universalis following treatment for hepatitis C with ribavirin and interferon.


PLAN: I am going to get a list from her of the medications she was treated with for NHL and see if there are any reports on this. I will also run this be some colleagues.


Question: Has anyone seen a similar patient?


References:

2 comments:

  1. It is the biggest fear that anyone can have. Specially for women.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have seen a few cases of alopecia universalis in elderly women unrelated to any illness or drug. I tried almost everything but nothing worked. On the contrary, younger patients with alopecia universalis seem to be good responders.

    ReplyDelete

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