Muhammad Khalid, Ghulam Mujtaba.
Childhood Vitiligo: A distinct entity?.
J Pak Assoc Derma Jan ;9(4):7-10.

Some investigators have suggested that childhood vitiligo is a distinct subset of vitiligo because it differs from the adulthood variety in a number of important aspects. The present study was done to verify this hypothesis in our patients. All the vitiligo patients presenting during a 3-years period were included in the study. Clinical features and associations were evaluated and compared in 362 children and 780 adults. As compared to adults, children had a significantly increased incidence of segmental vitiligo (p<0.01), a positive family history (p<0.05), the presence of Koebner`s phenomenon (p<0.001) and alopecia areata (p<0.01). History of diabetes mellitus and other autoimmune/endocrine diseases in the family was obtained from 14% of the children and 5% of the adults; the difference was significant (p<0.05). History of premature graying of hair in the first-degree relatives was obtained from a significantly higher proportion of children as compared to adults (p<0.05). Results of the present and previous studies suggest that childhood vitiligo differs from adulthood variety in only having a stronger background of genetic, autoimmune and neural factors which results in earlier onset of the disease.

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