Clinical characteristics of 527 patients of Tibetan nationality with vitiligo / 中华皮肤科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To analyze clinical characteristics of patients of Tibetan nationality with vitiligo in the Tibet autonomous region.Methods:Clinical data were collected from 527 patients of Tibetan nationality with vitiligo, who visited Department of Dermatology, People′s Hospital of Tibet Autonomous Region from January 2018 to December 2019, including age, gender, seasons at onset, involved body sites, classification and stages of vitiligo, concomitant diseases and laboratory test results.Results:Among the 527 patients of Tibetan nationality with vitiligo, the ratio of male to female was 0.97∶1, and vitiligo usually occurred at 10 - 30 years of age. As for clinical staging, 335 (63.6%) patients were diagnosed with progressive vitiligo, and 192 (36.4%) with stable vitiligo; as for clinical classification, there were 97 (18.4%) patients with segmental vitiligo, 293 (55.6%) with vitiligo vulgaris, 79 (15%) with mixed vitiligo and 58 (11%) with unclassified vitiligo; vitiligo lesions were mainly located on the face and neck (253 cases, 48%) , followed by the trunk (148 cases, 28%) , upper limbs (64 cases, 12%) , lower limbs (46 cases, 9%) , and perineal and perianal mucosa (16 cases, 3%) ; vitiligo usually occurred in summer (198 cases, 37.6%) and spring (154 cases, 29.2%) , followed by autumn (98 cases, 18.6%) and winter (77 cases, 14.6%) ; 140 (26.6%) patients suffered from other diseases such as thyroid diseases (85 cases, 16.1%) , and 74 (14.0%) suffered from subclinical thyroid diseases; one or more serological abnormalities were observed in 22 patients, including 18 with progressive vitiligo. Compared with the patients with stable vitiligo, those with progressive vitiligo showed significantly increased thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels ( P = 0.004) . Spearman rank correlation analysis showed that altitude was weakly correlated with the stage of vitiligo ( rs = -0.18, P < 0.001) , the stage of vitiligo was weakly negatively correlated with the TSH level ( rs = -0.12, P = 0.005) and complement C3 level ( rs = -0.09, P = 0.041) , and the classification of vitiligo was weakly correlated with the TSH level ( rs = -0.11, P = 0.011) . Conclusion:In this study, the patients of Tibetan nationality with vitiligo were mostly aged at 10 - 30 years, vitiligo lesions were mainly located on the face and neck, and usually occurred in spring and summer, and the prevalence of comorbid thyroid dysfunction was relatively high.