Introduction: Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is a hereditary and androgen-dependent progressive thinning of the scalp hair in a defined pattern. Several studies have reported an association between dyslipidemia and AGA. However, scarce data is available on association between severity of AGA and dyslipidemia. Hence, we performed a study to assess the clinical, epidemiological profile in male AGA patients and to compare lipid parameters among AGA cases and non-AGA controls to evaluate dyslipidemia association.
Materials and methods: This is a prospective case-control study included 108 age-matched AGA cases and non-AGA controls between 19-40 years. AGA was clinically diagnosed, and grading was done according to Norwood-Hamilton Classification. Fasting Lipid parameters for both cases and controls were determined using standard laboratory methods.
Results: Among the cases and controls, the mean age was 26.20±5.353 years. There was a statistically significant association between AGA and mean total cholesterol (TC) (P<0.001), mean high-density lipoprotein (HDL) (P<0.001), mean low-density lipoprotein (LDL) (P<0.001) and mean cholesterol/HDL ratio (P<0.001), except for mean triglycerides (TG) (P=0.443). Grade 4 was the commonest grading (20.4%). As the severity of AGA increased, the lipid parameters were significantly deranged. It was evident Grade 4 onwards with statistically significant derangement in TC (P<0.001), TG (P=0.005), HDL (P=0.002), LDL (P <0.001) and cholesterol/HDL(P<0.001).
Conclusions: AGA was found to be significantly associated with dyslipidemia and more common among severe grades. AGA could be a cutaneous marker of underlying systemic illness. Early screening for dyslipidemia is beneficial in patients with AGA.
Keywords: androgenetic alopecia; cardiovascular disease; dyslipidemia; lipid profile; metabolic syndrome.
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