Shaiqa Mufti, Kehkashan Tahir, Atif Shehzad, Syed Ahmad Kazmi, Asma Nasir, Umara Siddique.
Association of Serum Ferritin Levels and Non-Cicatricial Alopecia in Females.
J Pak Society Int Med Jan ;2(1):51-4.

Objective:To find the association between serum ferritin levels and non-ciatricial alopecia in females. Methods: 109 premenopausal women, fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria, referred to Dermatology OPD, were enrolled during a period of one year . History taking and physical examination were done and related forms were completed. Aclotted sample of blood was taken for measurement of serum ferritin level and haemoglobin level. Results: Mean age of patients was 26.79+- 6.962. Three clinical sub-types were noted i.e. out of total patients of non-scarring alopecia, 71 were suffering from chronic telogen effluvium (CTE), 23 from alopecia areata (AA) and 15 from androgenetic alopecia (AGA). Among these 109 females, 19 (17.4 %) had optimal serum ferritin levels and 90 (82.6 %) had suboptimal serum ferritin levels. Patients with non-scarring alopecia have significantly lower value of serum ferritin (p=0.002). Among different types of non scarring alopecia CTE had altogether lower estimations of serum ferritin ( p=0.019). The values of haemoglobin were significantly lower in most (75.2%) of the patients. Conclusion: There is statistically significant association between suboptimal serum ferritin levels and noncicatricial alopecia, in our selected sample, verifies depleted iron stores as one of the causative factor of nonscarring alopecia.

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