Evaluation of complete blood cell and inflammatory parameters in patients with alopecia areata: Their association with disease severity.

BACKGROUND: Alopecia areata (AA) is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by non-cicatricial hair loss. The cause of the disease is still unknown. It can appear at any age and occurs in 0.2% of the general population. Red cell distribution width (RDW), mean platelet volume (MPV), plateletcrit (PCT), the ratio of neutrophils to lymphocytes (NLR), and the ratio of platelets to lymphocytes (PLR) have all been reported as inflammatory markers in recent studies. However, these parameters have not been investigated in AA patients. AIM: We investigated the haematological and inflammatory parameters of AA and considered their association with disease severity. PATIENTS/METHODS: One hundred and five patients with AA and 108 healthy controls were enrolled in the study. RDW, MPV, PCT, NLR, PLR, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and C-reactive protein (CRP) were studied retrospectively. Disease severity was evaluated by using the Severity of Alopecia Tool (SALT) score. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences between RDW, MPV, PCT, NLR, and PLR levels in AA patients and in healthy controls. Only the CRP values were significantly higher in the AA group. CONCLUSION: Complete blood count (CBC) parameters are low-cost tests that can be used to define inflammation levels in inflammatory diseases. Our study shows that CRP can be used as a marker in diagnosing AA.