Abstract
Background: Excessive hair shedding among child-bearing women has been linked to low iron store. Despite this, multi-studies looked at this connection have yield inconsistent results.ferritinAim: To compare hemoglobin and ferritin level of childbearing women with telogen effluvium and those in otherwise good health. To evaluate the link between iron store level and amount of hair shed.Patients and Methods: The case-controlled study included 74 women with telogen effluvium and 22 age matched healthy women recruited from Al-Salam Teaching Hospital in Mosul. Participants underwent an assessment of hair fall count using a standardized hair fall count in 60 seconds. Five ml of blood was drawn to assess the iron status (hemoglobin and ferritin). Difference in iron status between groups were compared by t-test and their link with amount of hair fall was assessed by Pearson correlation and regression tests. P-value <0.05 is significant.Results: Alopecia patients were 27.81±9.63 years old on average. The difference in hemoglobin levels between Alopecia patients and the control group were not-significantly (11. 83±4.59 gm/dl vs. 12.72±0.88 gm/dl) while differences in ferritin level was highly significant (27.84±22.06 ng/ml vs. 57.75±19.75ng/ml). Strong inverse linear were detected in the number of hair falls and ferritin (r=-0.53, P 0.0001). Regression analysis revealed that changes in hemoglobin accounts for only 9% of variation in the total number of hair falls, while ferritin accounts for 28% of them. Two prediction equations based on hemoglobin and ferritin were created for predicting hair fall count in 60 seconds.Conclusions: The study provides additional evidence for the role of low iron stores reflected by ferritin level in hair fall count in women with chronic telogen effluvium. A nonanemic iron deficiency is probably responsible for unexplained non-specific symptoms like diffuse hair loss. The suggested regression equation provides dermatologists with a tool to predict the amount of hair fall based on estimated ferritin and hemoglobin.
