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Alopecia areata is a condition poignant humans in which hair is lost from some or all areas of the body usually from the scalp. Because it causes bald spots on the scalp especially in the first stages it is sometimes named spot baldness. In 1%-2% of cases the condition can gap to the entire scalp (Alopecia totalis) or to the entire epidermis (Alopecia universalis).

First symptoms are small soft bald patches which can take equitable about any shape but are most usually round. It most often affects the scalp and beard but may happen on any hair bearing part of the body. There may be different rind areas with hair loss and regrowth in the same body at the same time. It may also go into remission for a time or permanently.

The area of hair loss may tingle or be absolute slightly painful. The hair tends to spill out over a short period of time with the loss commonly occurring more on one side of the scalp than the other.

Another presentation of the term are exclamation point hairs. Exclamation point hairs are hairs that become narrower along the length of the fibril closer to the base producing a characteristic exclamation point appearance.

In the lawsuit of healthy hair if you were to try to pull some out none should fall out and ripped hair should not be distributed evenly across the tugged portion of the scalp. In cases of alopecia areata hair will take care to pull out more easily along the edge of the patch where the follicles are already being attacked by the immune system than away from the patch where they are still healthy.

Alopecia areata is noncontagious or not contagious. It occurs more frequently in people who have affected family members suggesting that heredity may be a cause. Strong evidence that genes may increase peril for alopecia areata was found by studying families with two or more affected members. This study identified at least 4 regions in the genome that are likely to contain alopecia areata genes. In addition it is somewhat more likely to occur in people who have relatives with auto immune diseases.

The condition is thought to be an autoimmune disorder in which the natural object attacks its own hair follicles and suppresses or stops hair growth. There is evidence that T cell lymphocytes cluster around these follicles causing excitement and subsequent hair loss. An unknown environmental trigger such as emotional stress or a pathogen is thought to combine with hereditary factors to cause the condition. At that place there are a few recorded cases of babies being born with congenital alopecia areata, however these are not cases of autoimmune disease because an infant is born without a fully developed immune system.

In cases where there is severe hair loss there has been limited success treating alopecia areata with clobetasol or fluocinonide steroid injections or cream. Steroid injections are commonly used in sites where thither are small areas of hair loss on the head or especially where eyebrow hair has been lost. Some other medications used are minoxidil elocon ointment (steroid cream) irritants (anthralin or topical coal tar) and topical immunotherapy cyclosporine each of which are sometimes used in unusual combinations.