Insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome in Iraqi patients with alopecia areata

Abstract

Background One of frequent forms of hair loss in humans is alopecia areata; the disease is autoimmune in nature with a clinical course that is often variable with relapse and remission and in some severe cases it may be persistent. A number of skin diseases have been shown to be associated with insulin resistance and the first report that linked alopecia areata with insulin resistance has been described recently by some authors.  Objective Due to the lack of sufficient data in our country about the possible link between alopecia areata and insulin resistance and the high rate of metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance in our society, the planning and conduction of the current study was justified to explore such an association.  Methods The current case control study included 50 patients with alopecia areata randomly selected from the pool of patients visiting dermatology unit at Al-Diwaniyah Teaching Hospital, Al-Diwaniyah province, Iraq. In addition, the study included 40 apparently healthy control subjects with comparable age and gender distribution.  Results  There was no significant difference in mean serum triglyceride (p = 0.180) but serum HDL was significantly higher in patients group in comparison with control group (p=0.006). Mean fasting blood sugar (FBS) was higher in patients than in control patients in a significant manner (p=0.032); mean insulin level was also significantly higher in patients than in control group (p=0.019); mean HOMA-IR was additionally higher in patients than in control subjects with a borderline significant value (p=0.054) and the rate of insulin resistance was significantly higher in patients than in control group, 50% versus 25%, respectively.  Conclusion There is significant association between insulin resistance and alopecia areata but the link of this skin disorder to other elements of metabolic syndrome such as obesity and hypertension need further investigations.