ABSTRACT

Objective:

There are several studies on the dermoscopy of the cicatricial alopecia. When the national literature is reviewed, however, only one original study focusing on the subject exists. Here, we aimed to investigate the dermoscopic features of the patients with primary cicatricial alopecia.

Materials and Methods:

In this study, dermoscopic findings of 40 patients with clinical and histopathological diagnosis of primary cicatricial alopecia were retrospectively reviewed. Dermoscopic examination was performed by a handheld dermoscope with 10‑fold magnification. Photographing was performed using a dermoscope attached to a cell phone camera with 2‑fold digital zoom

Results:

Tubular perifollicular scale in lichen planopilaris (n = 12), cutaneous clefts with emerging hairs and three‑dimensional yellow dots in dissecting cellulitis (n = 6), tufted hairs in folliculitis decalvans (n = 6), and follicular plugs and branching vessels in discoid lupus erythematosus (n = 6)

Conclusion:

Dermoscopy is a noninvasive, effective, and practical diagnostic tool for the differential diagnosis of primary cicatricial alopecia. The retrospective nature, lack of a control group, and relatively small number of the patients are the main limitations of our study