Abstract

Background: Alopecia areata is a disease, in which patients’ loss hairs as random patches due to autoimmune complications. Tofacitinib acts as an inhibiter in the Janus kinase signal transducer and activator of transcription pathway and is an effective drug approved for the of rheumatoid arthritis treatment. Limited evidence is available on the role of tofacitinib in treatment of alopecia areata.

Aim and Objective: The present study aims to evaluate the efficacy of tofacitinib in treatment of alopecia areata patients visiting the tertiary care center of North India.

Materials and Methods: Total 17 patients with alopecia areata were recruited in this study and prescribed with the tofacitinib 5 mg twice daily for 6 months. Severity of alopecia tool (SALT) was used to analyze the severity of hair loss. The SALT score measures the total percent of hair loss in all area of scalp. A higher SALT score indicates higher hair loss.

Results: The mean age of the patients was 27.88 ± 16.30 years with male-to-female sex ratio of 2.4:1. The mean duration of disease was 32.29 ± 22.14 months. There was a significant decrease in the SALT score (P = 0.0001) following the 6 months tofacitinib treatment.

Conclusion: Tofacitinib was found to be effective in the treatment of alopecia areata. Further multicentric studies with ample sample size are required to establish tofacitinib as a standard treatment for the alopecia areata.

Key words: Tofacitinib; Alopecia Areata; Scalp; Hair Loss; Severity of Alopecia Tool Score