Echocardiographic Findings in Patients with Alopecia Areata Versus Healthy Controls: is Cardiovascular Risk Truly Elevated or is it just a Myth?

Abstract

Due to its inflammatory characteristics, AA may be regarded as a potential risk factor for cardiocerebrovascular events. To address this issue, we conducted a single-center prospective crosssectional study on 26 adult patients who were clinically diagnosed with AA and 26 age- and sexmatched healthy controls from March 2022 through February 2023. After obtaining informed written consent from all participants, they were referred to the cardiology department for ECG recording and trans-thoracic echocardiography by a qualified echocardiologist using the Philips Healthcare Affinity 70c system with an S1–5 transducer. The study comprised 22 males (11 patients and 11 controls) and 30 females (15 patients and 15 controls). The mean age of the patient group was 41.21 ± 9.14 years, whereas the control group had a mean age of 39.28 ± 8.35 years. We did not find any significant alteration in echocardiographic and electrocardiographic features of patients with AA compared to healthy controls. In conclusion, our results did not indicate the need for prompt cardiac monitoring in AA patients.