Challenging issues in vitiligo research = Challenging issues in vitiligo research

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In the last five years we have studied prospectively a large cohort of children and adults with vitiligo. Clinical and pathological observations made in this group of patients have been of major importance to direct our bench research. In particular, the relation of segmental to nonsegmental vitiligo has been questioned, new forms of vitiligo have been delineated, and the importance of factors affecting immune responses (autoimmune and atopic diathesis) in patients and families have been studied. Recent data underline that vitiligo associated with thyroid autoantibodies has distinct clinical features from vitiligo without thyroid autoantibodies. In particular, patients with longer duration of disease and greater body surface involvement are more likely to present thyroid autoantibodies and should thus be monitored for thyroid function and anti-thyroid antibodies on a regular basis. Koebner`s phenomenon and its role in primary melanocytorrhagy vs relation to inflammatory progression of disease is important for disease assessment and prognosis. A simple clinical score for Koebner`s phenomenon was developed indicating that seven variables were independently associated with the presence of KP namely disease duration of more than 3 years, forehead + scalp areas, eyelids, wrists, genital + belt areas, knees and tibial crests. The score sustained adequate discrimination and calibration arguing that KP can be adequately predicted. Better nomenclature and outcome measures to perform muticenter randomized trials are future goals of our group within the Vitiligo European task force, now joined by other international colleagues since last year Vitiligo Global Issues Consensus Conferences held in Seoul and Bordeaux.