Assessment, reliability, and validity of trichoscopy in the evaluation of alopecia in women

Background Alopecia in women is generally difficult to diagnose clinically. Trichoscopy may help make the correct diagnosis in doubtful cases. Objective The aims of the study were to assess the trichoscopic features of different types of alopecia in women, the reliability of trichoscopy vis-a-vis clinical findings, and the validity of trichoscopy in cases with a doubtful clinical diagnosis. Methods A hospital-based observational, cross-sectional study was carried out on female patients with alopecia. A trichoscopic diagnosis was made and correlated with a clinical diagnosis. The validity of trichoscopy in doubtful cases was evaluated by reporting the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and diagnostic value. Results On trichoscopy, increased hair diameter diversity > 20%, single-hair follicular unit, vellus hair, peripilar sign, and focal atrichia were commonly seen in female pattern hair loss. In telogen effluvium, there was a scarceness of specific findings. In cicatricial alopecias, loss of follicular ostia, erythema, white macules, blue-gray dots, white dots, tufted hair, and keratotic follicular plugging were observed. A good agreement between trichoscopy and clinical diagnosis was found (Cohen’s Kappa = 0.824; 95% confidence interval, 0.756–0.892). The validity of trichoscopy in doubtful cases was evaluated using the validity parameters, which were high in all alopecias. Limitations Histopathology testing was not done in all patients. Conclusion Trichoscopy helped reach a definitive diagnosis in patients in whom the clinical diagnosis was doubtful. Thus, trichoscopy is a sensitive and specific investigation that can be valuable in women with alopecia.