The poor response of phototherapy in old lesions of vitiligo may be related to the presence of white hairs: a hypothesis.

摘要

A 51-year-old man presented with multiple white patches on the face, chest, abdomen, and extremities. Skin examination showed well-defined white patches on the face, chest, lower abdomen, and both extremities. He told that the lesions of chest (Fig. la), cheek, and extremities occurred in his teens, but the lesions of lower abdomen (Fig. lb) and forehead lesions started 8 months ago. He was diagnosed with generalized vitiligo. We examined the color of hairs in vitiligo lesions using a portable digital microscope (USB Microscope M2, Scalar Corporation, Tokyo, Japan) (1) because it was very difficult or impossible to evaluate the existence of white hairs with the naked eye. Old lesions showed a lot of white hairs, but the lesions that had appeared within the past year showed black hairs.