دراسة إكلينيكية وتحديد مستوى الزنك والنحاس في دم الأطفال الذين يعانون من مرض الثعلبة

Background: Alopecia areata (AA) is a T cell-mediated autoimmune disease of the hair follicle, frequently associated with a variety of other autoimmune disorders, the most common of which are thyroid diseases and vitiligo. Alopecia areata can occur at any age, with as many as 60% of patients with disease onset before 20 years of age.Objective: The aim of the present work is to study the clinical characteristics of childhood alopecia areata. The relationship between alopecia areata and geneder, age of onset, duration of the disease, family history, past episodes of AA and disease associations, will be assisted in this study. Also we review the clinical pattern and extent of involvement of AA. The second objective of our study was to evaluate serum levels of zinc and copper in the studied patients in comparison with controls.Material and Methods: In the present study, our aim was to describe the clinical characteristics of alopecia areata in a series of 50 consecutive children presented to Dermatology Outpatients Clinic in Zagazig University Hospitals. In addition, we studied the serum levels of copper and zinc in those patients in comparison with age and sex matched healthy controls to determine if these elements deficiency contribute to development 0f AA in children.Results: The 50 patients involved in the present study had mean age of 9.73 ± 2.96 years. They included 22 males ((44.0 %) and 28 females (56.0 %) with a female:male: ratio of 1.27:1. Disease onset at the age interval of 2-4 years and 4-6 years constituted the majority of cases (32.0 % and 34.0 % respectively). As regards the reported predisposing and associated conditions in the studied patients, we found that malnutrition was present in 23 patients (46.0 %) followed by stressful events in 19 patients (38.0 %), and infection in 7 patients (14.0 %).Conclusion: Zn and Cu deficiency should be looked for as an important contributor to the development of AA in children mainly due to the higher susceptibility of this age group to malnutrition and its consequences including trace element deficiency.