Alopecia Areata Clinical Case Review

Brett King, MD, associate professor of dermatology at the Yale School of Medicine, discusses the baseline characteristics of the case:

"All right, so to begin the case, we have a 55-year-old male who presents with hair loss that started 12 months prior with a single patch and he was diagnosed at that time with alopecia areata. Over the following nine months, an additional four or more patches developed and some of these coalesced to make bigger patches. This all happened in spite of treatment with intralesional triamcinolone, clobetasol 0.05% foam, and minoxidil 5% foam. The patches of alopecia only expanded in spite of treatment and this is what the patient looked like. As you can see, there is on the posterior scalp two rather large patches of hair loss and then you can see the faint appearance of other evolving patches on the occiput. The patient's past medical history included hypertension, coronary artery disease, sleep apnea, asthma, and seasonal allergies."