Prevalence of thyroid disorders in patients with alopecia areata

Objective: To study the prevalence of autoimmune thyroid disorders – thyroid auto-antibodies in patients with alopecia areata (AA) in Kerman, a city in South-East part of Iran. Methods: 52 patients with AA from those attending the dermatology ward of Afzalipour hospital in Kerman were enrolled. An equal number of age- and sex-matched controls (n=52) was included. Physical examination of thyroid was done for all patients and controls. The rate of positivity of anti-thyroid peroxidase (TPO) antibodies and abnormal thyroid hormone levels in both groups were measured and compared. Results: In both cases and controls, 48.1% and 51.9 % were males and females, respectively. The mean age in group of cases and control groups were 30.55 and 31.80 years, respectively. The number of lesions ranged from 1 to 10, and the duration of disease ranged from 0.6 to 96 months. No meaningful statistical difference was seen between prevalence of thyroid disorders in patients of AA and controls. Conclusion: In this study no correlation between AA and thyroid disorders was noted.