Evaluation of Female Diffuse Alopecia by Image Analysis

Abstract

Growth patterns in scalp hair were studied in 79 Japanese female subjects (aged 17～66 y) complaining of diffuse scalp hair loss and in 27 normal Japanese female subjects (aged 24～53 y.o.). A combination of phototrichogram, a non-invasive quantitative method, and the measurement of hair shaft diameter by micrometer was used to calculate the rate of hair growth, the ratio of anagen hairs to the number of hairs per unit, the hair shaft diameter, and the percentages of thick and short hairs. The correlation between diffuse alopecia and other diseases, such as endocrine dysfunctions and anemia, was also assessed. Our quantitative analysis revealed that these 79 hair loss patients could be divided into eight categories on the basis of hair loss pattern. Ten of the 79 patients exhibited a normal hair growth pattern ; the remaining 69 had the hair loss patterns characterized by thinning only, low growth rate only, or low growth rate and thinning, none of which were previously distinguishable by unaided visual inspection. These results suggest that the method described above is useful for evaluating hair growth patterns in female patients complaining of diffuse scalp hair loss.