P#32  TrichoScan : Results using 5% Minoxidil in Women with Androgenetic Alopecia

Rolf Hoffmann. Dept of Dermatology, Philipp University, Marburg, Germany

Hair loss or hair thinning is a common complaint and the effects of treatment attempts are hard to measure. Consequently, there was a need for a sensitive tool to monitor hair loss and treatment response. Such a method should have been able to analyze the biological parameters of hair growth, which are: 1: hair density (n/cm2), 2: hair diameter (µm), 3: hair growth rate (mm/day) and 4: anagen/telogen ratio. Recently we have developed the TrichoScan as a method which combines epiluminescence (skin) microscopy (ELM) with automatic digital image analysis for the measurement of human, and potentially animal hair, in situ. The TrichoScan is able to analyze all biological parameters of hair growth with a so called intraclass correlation of approx. 91% within the same TrichoScan operator and an interclass correlation of approx. 97% for different TrichoScan operators. Herewith the power and accuracy of the TrichoScan is demonstrated by comparison of the hair parameters in 10 women with androgenetic alopecia (AGA) (Ludwig 1-2) which were treated for 6 months with 5% minoxidil. Compared to baseline we were able to detect an improved anagen hair count (73% vs 65% anagen hairs) and a statistically significant increase in total hair counts (237/cm2 vs.193/cm2; p = 0.002) and cumulative hair thickness (16,9 mm/cm2 vs 12,9 mm/cm2 p = 0.007) 6 months after treatment. These results show that the TrichoScan is able to measure significant changes of hair parameters even after 6 months of treatment and in a rather small group of probands. Therefore, the TrichoScan can be used for clinical studies for all hair colors to compare placebo versus active drugs or to compare different capacities of different hair growth promoting substances. It can be used for studying AGA or other forms of diffuse hair loss, and it can be adopted to study the effect of drugs or laser treatment on hypertrichosis or hirsutism.